Superwomen of Eva 2: Dark Lady of Tokyo3
by Mike313
Summary: Most people assume that Mayumi Yamagishi is just a timid little bookworm. Most people think she's just a quiet young heiress living off her late parents' huge fortune. Most people are wrong. Very wrong.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Prologue**: Devil in the Dark

_2009_

"That was such a great show!" Mayumi exclaimed as she skipped out of the Tokyo-2 Theater House. "Can we go to see a play every week?"

Her father chuckled indulgently. "I'm afraid not, May-chan," he said. "Your mother and I simply can't find the time."

"Besides, I don't think enough new productions come out for us to see a new one every week," her mother added. "We'd have to see the same ones over and over, and that would just get boring eventually."

"Oh…" Mayumi said, crestfallen.

Her mother smiled. "But we will have to see another one as soon as we can," she said. "It's been very nice, getting away from work and spending time with our little girl."

"Yatta!" the eight-year-old girl exclaimed, suddenly all smiles again.

Her father smiled, silently agreeing that they needed to do this again as soon as possible. Moments of family togetherness like this were far too rare, and it was important to seize the chances for them while he could.

However, he had more immediate matters to deal with at the moment.

"Now, where did we leave the car?" he wondered aloud.

"In the middle of that labyrinthine parking garage," Mayumi's mother answered, her tone playfully scolding. "I told you that we should have had Motomu drop us off and then come pick us up in the limo."

"I am perfectly capable of driving us around," Mayumi's father replied huffily. "And I'm sure we can find the car with no difficulty."

"Of course."

He huffed again and led his small family into the intimidating, underground parking garage. It was the only place where available parking spaces had remained by the time they'd arrived at the theater, mostly because he had gotten them lost on the drive over.

At first, they were unconcerned as they trekked through the parking garage, still talking and laughing about the play they'd just watched. However, as the minutes dragged on and they could find no sign of their car, their good mood slowly withered and died.

"I was positive the car was in this area here," Mr. Yamagishi said for the tenth time as they passed a certain section of garage.

"Daddy, I'm scared," Mayumi whispered, suddenly noticing just how dark and devoid of other people the area was.

"Perhaps we should leave and call Motomu," Mrs. Yamagishi suggested.

Her husband was about to make a reply when a figure suddenly turned a corner and entered the Yamagishi's view. Mr. Yamagishi smiled and called to him, feeling relieved to see another person.

"Hey, there! I don't suppose you've seen a black Lexus around here?"

The man did didn't respond as they drew closer, and Mrs. Yamagishi nervously placed a hand on her husband's back. "Anata," she whispered. "Perhaps…"

The man pulled out a pistol before she could finish. "Gimmie your money!" he roared.

Mr. Yamagishi cursed softly. "All right, all right," he said as evenly as he could, trying to calm the mugger. "You can have my wallet, just don't do anything hasty…"

"No talking! Just gimmie the money!" the mugger shouted.

Mr. Yamagishi nodded and reached into his pocket for his wallet.

"Whoa! Hold it!" the mugger roared, causing Mr. Yamagishi's hand to immediately freeze. "You tryin' to pull a gun on me?"

"What?! No, of course not!" Mr. Yamagishi exclaimed, suddenly suspecting that their assailant was high on some illegal drug or another.

"Then gimmie your money!"

With a sigh, Mr. Yamagishi reached his hand into his pocket for his wallet once more.

It proved to be a fatal mistake. The mugger appeared to panic and squeezed off two shots. Mr. Yamagishi let out a low grunt as the bullets crashed into his chest, and he collapsed to the ground, blood rapidly pooling beneath him.

Mrs. Yamagishi barely got a chance to scream before the mugger pumped a pair of rounds into her as well, and she fell lifelessly to the asphalt.

Leaving only little Mayumi standing before him, a look of sheer horror on her young face.

"Run, kid," the mugger whispered. "Run."

Mayumi didn't move, _couldn't _move. Fear had her firmly frozen in place.

"Now!" the mugger shouted, firing a shot at the ground by Mayumi's feet.

That broke the spell. The little girl released a piercing scream and then turned and ran, soon disappearing from the murderer's sight.

As soon as she was gone, the "mugger" squatted down by the two bodies, quickly confirming that they were dead and then taking their valuables. Not that he had any need for them, but it would look suspicious if their wallets and jewelry were still on the bodies when the police arrived to investigate.

Once this was done, he walked out of the parking garage, grumbling to himself about how the men who worked under him were so incompetent that he had to get his own hands dirty doing the more sensitive and important jobs, just to be sure they were accomplished properly.

A few minutes later, he was out of the parking deck and walking through the dark streets of Tokyo-2. He had gotten away with it.

The man reached into the pocket of the tattered coat he'd donned to look like a common mugger and pulled out a cell phone. He quickly dialed a number and then held the phone to his ear. Someone answered immediately after the first ring.

"Yes?"

"This is Chiron," the head of GEHIRN's Section Two division replied. "Inform the Commander that the targets have been eliminated."

* * *

_2015_

"I really don't find this change of residence to be advisable, Mayumi-san," said Motomu Chogei as he expertly drove a black Mercedes down the freeway. "Tokyo-3 has become a rather dangerous neighborhood of late."

In the back seat, Mayumi resisted the urge to release a long suffering sigh as she watched the landscape roll by outside. Her butler, chauffer, and guardian had been against this move from the moment she'd announced her plans to do it, and he'd never let her forget it.

"You've already made your opinion known, Motomu," Mayumi said. "But I'm committed to doing this. After all, with the number of heavy mechanical components they buy from us, NERV has become Yamagishi Enterprises' best customer. It makes good business sense for me to relocate to the same city that hosts NERV Central."

This, of course, was utter rubbish. Mayumi rarely if ever had anything to do with running Yamagishi Enterprises. In fact, even when her parents had been alive, their American business partner had been the one who actually oversaw the great corporation. The Yamagishi's had always spent their time in the laboratory, not the boardroom.

No, Mayumi's motivations for moving to Tokyo-3 had nothing to do with Yamagishi Enterprises.

It had to do with the Angels.

The Yamagishi's had been studying the Angels before their untimely demise, though Mayumi didn't know anything more than that. After their deaths, the government had immediately classified _everything_ related to exactly what her parents had been doing, and even with all the resources she had at her disposal, Mayumi had never been able to discover so much as what the name of their project had been.

She had no proof that what her parents were working on had anything to do with their deaths—that the mugger wasn't a mugger at all but an assassin—but she had always suspected as much. Now, at last, the chance to investigate had arisen, and she intended to pounce on it.

Motomu knew all of this, of course, so he just sighed. "Yes, Mayumi-san."

"Really," Mayumi said, "I should have moved here sooner. I would have, but finding suitable accommodations has been so difficult."

"Indeed," Motomu agreed, once again knowing exactly what Mayumi was talking about.

"Speaking of which, what is the story behind my new home again, Motomu?" Mayumi asked.

She knew, of course; her memory was nearly perfect, but she wanted to make conversation rather than sit in silence. Once again, Motomu knew this, and he indulged her.

"The residence was constructed during the Bakamatsu," he answered. "Most of the exact details of its history are, regretfully, lost to antiquity. However, it is widely believed that the hidden basement was used by one faction or another in the conflict to hide soldiers. The building was destroyed by an earthquake that struck only two days after the Second Impact, but it was reconstructed two years ago by a successful businessman who—wisely—left the city after the First Battle of Tokyo-3."

Mayumi ignored the little barb. "And the place has been properly…prepared?" she asked.

"Mayumi-san, as I told you, I saw to it personally," Motomu said, sounding a trifle offended.

"Of course, Motomu," Mayumi agreed.

Motomu turned the car off the highway at that point, soon bring them within the Tokyo-3 city limits. The new Yamagishi Manor was located on the very edge of the modern fortress city, and they arrived there in only a few minutes.

"Oh my," Mayumi said as she got out of the car looked at it.

She had yet to lay eyes on it in person, and she had to admit it was very impressive. The three story manor house had been constructed in the style of the Edo period, and the architect who had designed it had obviously taken great pains to make it as genuine as possible. Outside the building, there was a koi pond, a rock garden, and an expansive lawn with an ornate stone lantern decorating it.

"Truly something, isn't it?" Motomu asked as he popped the trunk and removed Mayumi's suitcases.

"Indeed," Mayumi agreed.

While Motomu went to the task of getting Mayumi's things inside, the girl entered her new home and began to walk around, inspecting it. Though she trusted her family's faithful servant and friend, she never would have been happy until she'd gone over the place itself.

The interior of Yamagishi Manor was nothing like the outside; it was done completely in Western style, which suited Mayumi just fine. She briefly toured around her own house, visiting the gym, the library, and the pool before venturing up to her personal study.

Motomu, finished with stowing Mayumi's bags in her new bedroom, arrived just as she was skimming through the bookshelves. He sighed. "Really, Mayumi-san, already? You'll miss dinner, and it's barely even dark yet."

"I have to see the most important part of my new home, Motomu," Mayumi replied. "Besides, it's already dark enough, and I want to get a feel for this new city."

"Very well," Motomu agreed, the very picture of a man who'd fought a certain fight and lost far too many times in the past to take up arms once again.

Mayumi looked through the books for a second longer before finding the one she sought: _The Fascism of Love and Fantasy._ Smiling slightly in triumph, she pulled the book off the shelf, exposing the switch concealed behind it. She pressed it, and a hidden doorway in one of the walls opened, revealing a staircase that led downwards.

She nodded politely at Motomu before beginning to descend the stairs. Moments later, the hidden door closed after her, leaving the butler alone to shake his head silently in weary exasperation.

* * *

Author's Notes: Those of you who know anything about comics probably know who I've chosen for Mayumi. You're also probably wondering why I picked Mayumi of all the Eva girls for this (or maybe not. Maybe this makes more obvious sense than I think it does). I'll explain when the first full chapter of this is posted.

For those of you who have no idea who Mayumi is, well, odds are pretty good that you don't ever read comics, so thanks for reading these things despite that.

Anyway, thanks as always to all my readers and reviewers.

Edit: Also, I'd like to thank Marco A Salazar as well, who volunteered to be my beta reader and started with this fic.

* * *

Omake

Chiron is Not Genre Savvy

Leaving only little Mayumi standing before him, a look of sheer horror on her young face.

"Run, kid," the mugger whispered. "Run."

Mayumi didn't move, _couldn't _move. Fear had her firmly frozen in place.

"Now!" the mugger shouted, firing a shot at the ground by Mayumi's feet.

That broke the spell. The little girl released a piercing scream and then turned and ran, soon disappearing from the murderer's sight.

The man reached into the pocket of the tattered coat he'd donned to look like a common mugger and pulled out a cell phone. He quickly dialed a number and then held the phone to his ear. Someone answered immediately after the first ring.

"Yes?"

"This is Chiron," the head of GEHIRN's Section Two division replied. "Inform the Commander that the targets have been eliminated."

"Did you kill the little girl, too?" the guy on the other end asked.

Chiron frowned. "Why would I kill the girl?" he asked. "I may be a ruthless bastard with a heart of stone, but even I wouldn't kill a little kid for no reason."

"No reason? No reason?!" the other guy sputtered. "Haven't you ever watched a movie or read a book like this? That kid will probably swear undying vengeance upon you, and then mess you up real bad in a few years! If you don't go back and kill that kid, you _will_ pay for showing a shred of mercy!"

Chiron slowly stopped walking, then hesitated. "I'll call you back," he finally said, quickly hanging up.

The man pulled out his gun and then sprinted back to where he'd shot the Yamagishi's. However, he was already too late; Mayumi was nowhere to be found.

"Crap," he muttered.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

**Chapter One: **Night and Day

Descending a long, winding staircase that appeared to lead to nothing except inky darkness would have put most people on edge, if not on the verge of panic. Mayumi Yamagishi felt herself relaxing as she walked into that which was familiar to her.

She removed her big round glasses as she walked down the stairs, carefully placing them inside a simple case. Her vision was the not the least bit affected by this action; years ago, Mayumi had undergone cutting-edge (and very expensive) laser eye surgery. Her vision was actually slightly better than 20/20 as a result, but she continued to wear glasses with non-prescription lenses. They helped project a certain image.

Lights, activated by motion detectors, switched on as she neared the end of the staircase and finally emerged at her destination, the large hidden room that lay beneath Yamagishi Manor.

The floodlights came on with an audible noise as she walked in, but the great chamber was so vast that it still seemed rather dark to the naked eye, and long shadows were everywhere, creating vaguely-menacing shapes.

Mayumi felt right at home.

"Well, down to business, then," she said, and began to inspect the place.

There was more to her private enclave than menacing shadows and the strong impression that it was the place where the things that go bump in the night came to roost during the day. The place was packed with a variety of equipment, including a computer that made everything else in the city, save the MAGI, look like a toy in comparison.

The raven-haired girl spent several minutes doing a meticulous study of the chamber, making sure that everything was in its proper place and functioning as it should. The slightest problem could lead to disaster, and Mayumi was not one to invite disaster.

"Well, Motomu," she said at last, a satisfied expression appearing on her face, "you did it again. The new Batcave is perfect."

Now content that her headquarters were up to snuff, Mayumi entered a small side room and was unsurprised to find a dark costume waiting for her there.

After tying her long hair back, the young heiress quickly disrobed and then donned her costume. It was almost entirely black and molded to her impeccably fit body like a second skin. The yellow outline of the bat emblem on her chest and the yellow utility belt she wore were the only splashes of color in the entire ensemble.

The suit was probably the most expensive piece of clothing ever made by mankind. High-tech circuitry was woven all throughout the deceptively thin material of the garment, and was used for various functions, nearly all of which had saved her life at least once.

Once she had the bodysuit on, Mayumi threw her ebony cape over her shoulders, then slipped on her cowl. The latter garment covered her entire head, and two pointed "ears" stuck up from the top.

With the costume now fully on, any trace of Mayumi Yamagishi vanished, and only the Batgirl remained.

* * *

Not much later, Batgirl was speeding through the dark streets of Tokyo-3 on a black motorcycle, which had been specially modified to be all but silent no matter how hard she gunned the engine.

It also had a number of other modifications, but Batgirl didn't like to use those unless she had to. They generally drew more attention than she would have liked.

_What a strange city,_ she thought.

Tokyo-3 had a very well-maintained upscale section where street crime was practically unheard of, and this was the face that the local government liked to show to the world: a glittering metropolis that boasted some of the world's most advanced technology. However, it also had a very run-down, depressed section where crime ran rampant.

Not that this was atypical of large cities, but in Tokyo-3, the change happened all at once. On one side of a particular street was the thriving city, while on the other was a broken down slum.

Hakone had been hit hard by Second Impact, but the government hadn't bulldozed all of it when they had decided to build Tokyo-3 in its place, and that was what led to the abrupt change. That much was obvious, but it felt very unnatural to Batgirl, who was used to the far more organic and gradual transition from upscale to slum that happened in Tokyo-2.

_I wonder how having the rich so close to the poor affects things here,_ she thought, making a mental note to research that later.

Most people wouldn't have guessed it, but roughly 90 percent of being successful as Batgirl was doing the homework and making the right preparations. Though it wasn't as dramatic as what happened out in the streets, she won most of her battles before she even left the Batcave.

On this particular night, the quirks of the city didn't make much difference. She intended to plunge right into the most crime-infested part of the city and see what was what, so she parked the Batcycle in a dark alleyway and activated its anti-theft system. Once off the bike, Batgirl grabbed hold of a small grappling gun that had been sitting on her belt and fired it. The hook found purchase on the roof of one of the buildings she stood next to, and Batgirl quickly scaled the wall, moving as silently as a shadow.

She didn't expect to do anything big that evening, beyond get herself personally acquainted with the city and perhaps put a stop to a random crime or two, but that was all right. The murder of her parents had been a random crime.

Or so all the official records said.

"Get off me!" Batgirl suddenly heard a woman cry.

_Well, that was quick,_ she thought as she peered down at the street, careful not to expose herself any more than necessary as she did so.

* * *

_Another night, another yen,_ Tokio thought tiredly as she walked through the dark streets, pausing a moment to adjust her tube top.

"God I hate these heels," she muttered to herself as she glanced down at the stilettos she was wearing.

Her feet already throbbed, even though the night was young, but she had to wear the things. Experience had taught her that she would see far fewer customers if she wore flat shoes.

_Speaking of which…_ she thought, spying a large, burly man who was staring at her rather intently from a nearby doorway. Ignoring the pain in her feet, she strutted over to the man, a suggestive smile on her face.

"How much?" he asked.

"Five thousand yen," she answered in as breathy a voice as she could muster.

The man frowned. "Too much."

"Oh, c'mon, for someone who looks like me?" she said, running a finger down his chest, "You won't find a better deal anywhere on all of Nippon."

The man shook his head resolutely. "Five thousand yen is too much."

"Fine," Tokio said with an exaggerated sigh. "And I was _so_ looking forward to it, too."

A glint of interest appeared in the man's eye. "Really? Then, maybe we can talk about a discount?"

"No discount," she said. "A girl has to eat, you know."

The man suddenly reached out and snatched hold of her wrist in his big hand, applying more than enough pressure to hurt her. "Oh, I think I can get you to give me a discount," he hissed. "One hundred percent off."

Her eyes widening, Tokio quickly reached into the hidden pocket of her leather skirt with her free hand, pulling out a small box cutter and pushing the little switch to expose the blade.

Her would-be customer turned assailant saw what she was doing and grabbed hold of her other wrist with his remaining hand, then squeezed for all he was worth. Tears of pain pricked the corners of Tokio's eyes, and her grip on her weapon slackened, until the box cutter went falling from her suddenly numb fingers.

She began to struggle furiously, trying to wrench her arms free and kick him in the crotch at once. However, he had at least 50 kilos on her, and was able to control her easily enough.

"Get off me!" she shouted.

He snorted. "Hell, no," he said bluntly as he began to drag her toward a dark alleyway.

Fear clutched at her heart. Tokio had always known that something like this was a possibility. Hell, it a possibility for women who, unlike her, _didn't_ have to walk around the bad parts of the city in the middle of the night while wearing provocative clothing. However, having always known this might happen didn't make it any less terrifying.

Suddenly, she saw something strange behind her attacker. It looked like a shadow, a shadow that was standing on a window ledge and holding a… bat?

Tokio barely had time to register the presence of the mysterious shadow before it hurled the bat-shaped thing it held. The object spun as it cut through the night air at high speed, striking the ground nearby her assailant's feet.

A loud _bang!_ and a puff of smoke erupted as the thing impacted the hard concrete, taking the man who was trying to force himself on her completely by surprise. He jumped, his grip on her loosening, and Tokio took her chance, pulling away from him with every ounce of strength she possessed.

It was almost, but not quite enough. She managed to get one hand arm free, but he remembered her and clamped down hard on her other wrist just before she could pull that one from his grip as well.

He glared at her. "I don't think—"

Her assailant never finished. The "shadow" leapt off the window ledge, emerging from the real shadows and sailing toward them, its black cape billowing out after it. The bottom of a single, black boot slammed into the man's face as the shadow came down on him, sending him crashing to the pavement.

Unsurprisingly, he released his hold on Tokio as he went down, and she quickly backed up several steps away from him, too shocked by what had just happened to do the sensible thing—kick off her heels and run like the wind. Instead, she looked at her savior.

It was a young woman, dressed in black from head to toe. She was short, if she was an adult, but she obviously felt as though she was the one in control of the situation. Her posture and demeanor made that abundantly clear.

"You're not hurting anyone tonight," the girl in black told the man, her young voice somehow sounding incredibly menacing. "You may as well surrender."

The big man sat motionlessly on the ground for a few seconds, clearly stupefied. Finally, he spoke, and thought his voice was barely louder than a whisper, Tokio heard it all the same.

"Holy crap, you're real."

Tokio frowned at that, wondering how the dirt bag could possibly know who this strange girl was.

Then she noticed the bat-emblem that was drawn on the girl's chest with a yellow line. _No way,_ she thought. _The Batgirl?! Here?_

The man suddenly threw his head back and laughed, though to Tokio's ears, it sounded at least a little forced. "I always pictured you as being taller."

With that, he leapt to his feet and lunged at the caped crusader, intending to tackle her to the ground with his greater weight.

In the split second after he attacked and before she responded, Tokio felt her whole body tense up. The man who'd attacked her was going to crash into Batgirl and pin the one who'd saved her to the ground. He'd been entirely in control of her once he got her trapped beneath his weight, and Tokio would have to make a choice: stay and try and help her, or run.

However, instead of what she'd felt so certain would come to pass, Batgirl reacted to the man's attack with lightning-quick reflexes, grabbing hold of his forearm. With some kind of martial arts-type move, she threw him over her shoulder, again sending him crashing down to the hard sidewalk.

"How tall do I look _now?_" she hissed down at the man, looming over him.

The guy didn't even try to answer. Instead, he let out a small yelp of fear and scrambled to his feet and began to run away from the girl in black, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste to be away.

"They always run," Batgirl mused aloud, reaching to her belt and removing something made of ropes with weights on the ends.

With a flick of her wrist, the black-clad girl sent the thing flying after the man. To Tokio's amazement, the ropes seemed to unfurl as they went careening through the air, and quickly caught up with the fleeing man. The ropes went twirling around him faster than he could react, binding both his legs and arms. Of course, since he'd built up considerable momentum as he'd run, the guy went falling to the concrete once again, this time falling face first.

With a satisfied grunt, Batgirl walked over to the man, removed two pairs of handcuffs from her belt, and bound his wrists and ankles more securely, then methodically unwound the ropes from around him, taking them back.

As she was going about this, Tokio saw the man open his mouth, clearly planning on saying something to his captor. Batgirl turned to look at him—just _look_ at him—and he immediately closed his mouth so quickly that Tokio could hear a soft snap as his teeth came together.

Finally, Batgirl had her rope thing free of the man, and she carefully put it back into one of the compartments on her yellow belt, then turned to Tokio.

"Are you all right?"

Despite giving out no indication that she was going to turn on her, Batgirl intimidated the hell out of Tokio. It was the black lenses in her cowl that covered her eyes, the older woman decided. Those things held unquestionable menace, and Tokio's mind envisioned the angry eyes of a bird of prey lurking behind them.

"F-Fine," she stammered. "Just… shaken. Uh, thanks a lot. For the save, I mean."

"It wouldn't have been necessary if you weren't out here," Batgirl growled.

Tokio could only hold up her hands and say, "I'm sorry!"

"There's a good chance no one will come swooping out of the shadows to save you next time," Batgirl said, ignoring her apology. "You should think on that, the next time you're pondering where your life's going."

Tokio swallowed. Under any other set of circumstances, she would have gotten indignant and let the person trying to get her to change her ways know that there was no other damn option out there for her. Right now, she began to reconsider whether that was really true or not.

Batgirl turned back to the bound man who lay on the sidewalk. "Can I count on you to call the police to take him away?" she asked Tokio.

"Sure," she responded, a slow, contemptuous smile spreading over her face as she looked at the bastard who'd tried to drag her into a dark corner to force himself on her. "Damn cops never bother patrolling around here much, but if I tell 'em there's a guy like him sitting here gift-wrapped for 'em, they'll come running to claim the credit."

The Batgirl didn't make a reply for a long moment, and Tokio somehow had the sneaking suspicion that the girl in black was glaring at her for some reason. Steeling her courage, Tokio lifted her head to look at her dark savior, only to find that she had disappeared.

* * *

_Well, I'll say one thing for this city,_ Batgirl thought as she went swinging through the slums of Tokyo-3, _it's not boring._

Spotting a small crowd of people clustered in the dark streets, she landed lightly on the roof of a nearby building and peered down to see exactly what was going on. A group of young men had formed a semi-circle around a teenage boy who held a white paper bag in his hands, trapping him between them and the side of an abandoned building.

"C'mon, man, you should know that you can't go through the Bloods' territory without paying the toll," the leader of the young toughs said, brandishing a tire iron menacingly. "So pay up!"

_The Bloods,_ Batgirl thought disdainfully. _Could they have picked a less original name?_

The boy hesitated, clearly terrified.

"Hey, man!" the leader shouted, clearly displeased by the lack of response. "Wake up!"

"S-Sorry," the boy stammered out, "but I don't have any money on me. I can pay you double next time, though."

It was obvious that he intended for there to never _be_ a next time, and the leader of the gang wasn't fooled for a moment. "Nuh-uh, it don't work that way, boy," he said. "And if you don't got any money, we accept other forms of payment."

He reached out for the paper bag the boy held, but despite his obvious fear, the boy still tried to pull it back. The gang leader responded by striking the boy's wrist with the tire iron he held.

"Ow!" the boy cried in pain as the paper bag was taken away from him.

"Well, what do we have here?" the tough said, removing a small bottle made of transparent orange plastic with a child-proof top.

"It's my mother's medication," the boy said. "Please, man, give it back. You can't get high off of it or anything. It's no good to you."

"No good to me?" the leader echoed. "Oh, I think it's plenty good to me. You see, taking this stuff from you will teach you a lesson..."

His voice rose as he continued his pontificating, and Batgirl took the opportunity to fire her grappling gun, the gang leader's voice masking the faint sound it made. The hook caught on a nearby building, unnoticed by everyone save the caped crusader, and she tugged on it experimentally to make sure it had a firm hold. Then she leapt off the side of the building she stood upon.

"It'll teach you that you can't walk through the Bloods' territory like you own it. It'll teach you to respect us," the thug continued. "And respect—"

Batgirl stuck out her legs as she sailed toward him, and the bottom of both her boots slammed into her target's torso. She could feel the air leave his lungs in a rush as well as hear it as he went flying from the force of the impact, soon landing in a heap about ten meters from where he'd begun.

She released her hold on the rope she'd held, landing in a crouch on the very spot the thug she'd just sent soaring away had occupied but a moment ago. "Respect is something that's given," she said in the low, raspy voice she used when she wore the cowl. "You can't force people to respect you. But you can make them fear you."

As though the conclusion of her little speech was a signal, the rest of the street gang suddenly produced weapons, everything from wicked hunting knives, to chains, to crowbars, to letter openers.

Batgirl responded by hurling a small capsule to the ground, where it shattered and unleashed a great cloud of dark smoke, far more than the exploding batarang she'd employed earlier that night.

"Infrared," she ordered.

Immediately, her batsuit responded, and the vision before her eyes shifted, the world becoming a pale blue with the members of the gang lit up in bright red and orange. She barely saw the smoke she'd just unleashed at all.

Before any of her enemies could react to finding themselves blinded by the smoke, Batgirl reached into her utility belt and withdrew a taser the size of a modern cell phone, then pounced on the men closest to her.

Three cries of pain rang out in rapid succession, each one followed by the sound of a body falling limply to the ground. After that, the battery in her tiny taser was expended and she quickly put it away, trading it for her bolas. With practiced ease, she sent them flying, and they promptly entangled a pair of the thugs, who quickly fell to the ground.

One of her foes got close enough to see her through the fading smoke and lunged at her, attempting to stab her with the knife he held. Batgirl sent him tumbling to the ground with a perfect aikido throw, then brought her foot down hard on his weapon hand. The man let out a cry of agony as he felt the little bones in his hand being forced out of their proper places.

The largest of the gang members suddenly managed to spot her, and he unleashed a roar as he charged her. The man was one of the few who didn't carry a weapon, but that was because he usually didn't need one; he stood head and shoulders above all the other gang members and overweighed them by just as substantial a margin.

Batgirl could have easily dodged the enraged brute's clumsy attempt at tackling her, but she didn't do that. Instead, she reached out, grabbing hold of his shirt with both hands. Then, using his own momentum to aid her, she lifted the huge man above her head with a grunt of effort.

The batsuit wasn't one of the most expensive garments ever created for nothing. Minute servomotors that were located all throughout the suit significantly enhanced her strength, which rigorous training had already made far greater than that possessed by the average fourteen-year-old girl.

Even so, she couldn't hold the guy up for more than a few moments, even if he wasn't struggling, which he was. With a grunt, she hurled him at some of the few thugs who remained standing, bowling over three of them.

"Christ!" one of the gang members yelled. "This bitch is unreal!"

"Screw this!" another shouted. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

The gang members who still could went running, scattering as they went. The dark lady didn't bother to pursue them; only a few of the smaller, less dangerous members who'd kept their distance remained, and even she couldn't hope to catch more than one or two. Besides, she needed someone to let the criminals of Tokyo-3 know that the Batgirl had come to town.

"Normal mode," she said, and her infrared vision switched off.

_Ought to see about improving those smoke bombs,_ she mused as she observed the cloud, which had mostly dissipated by that point.

Storing that thought away for later, Batgirl turned to the boy that the gang had targeted, quickly taking him in. He was about her age, but below average height for it, and he wore old clothing that was a few sizes too big for him. It didn't take the world's greatest detective to realize that he didn't exactly come from an affluent home.

"Are you—?"

"Hold it right there, bitch!"

She whirled around to see that the leader of the gangs had gotten to his feet and was now pointing a gun at her, even as he clutched at the place where she'd hit him with his free hand.

Batgirl silently scolded herself for assuming that he was down for the count and forgetting about him. Such sloppiness always had the potential to get her killed.

"Thought you could get the drop on me and my gang, didja?" the man shouted. "Well, sorry, but _nobody_ messes with the Bloods like that and—!"

The dark lady grabbed a batarang and sent it spinning through the air at the man. The gang-less gang leader's eyes widened, but he didn't have time to pull the trigger before Batgirl's favorite weapon struck his gun, knocking it out of his hand with a metallic _clang!_

Before he could recover from the shock enough to even think about retrieving his firearm, Batgirl surged forward, closing the distance between them in an instant. Her fist shot out, crashing right into the man's jaw. He went down, collapsing to ground.

"My god..." he groaned, "...what are you?!"

"I'm the Batgirl," she said simply as she withdrew a pair of handcuffs from her belt. He didn't have the strength to struggle against her as she bound his ankles and wrists.

This done, she turned to the boy again. "Are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh! Uh, hand's a little banged up, but it's nothing some time and an ice pack won't fix," he replied. "Geeze, miss, what you did was crazy. Awesome, but crazy. That guy could have killed you."

"Not unless he got me right in the eye," she replied, tugging slightly at her sleeve. "The whole suit's made out of a special smart material; it becomes rigid if something hits it hard enough. It can stop bullets."

_Though that doesn't mean that a gunshot doesn't still hurt like hell,_ she added silently.

The teenager's eyes widened, and he looked her up and down, finally managing to really see her in the calm after the tumultuous few minutes that had just passed. His eyes widened, and she saw recognition appear in them.

"Batgirl," he whispered. "No way. I thought you were just an urban legend of Tokyo-2."

"A lot of people think that," she replied, "but the criminals in Tokyo-2, they knew better. The ones in Tokyo-3 will learn the same lesson."

She tossed something at him then, and he instinctively reached out and caught it. His fingers wrapped around the plastic prescription bottle that contained his mother's medication. He blinked at it dumbly, wondering when she could have possibly found the chance to pick it up.

"Th-Thanks," he stammered. "Me and my mom can't pay for her meds easy. Losing this would have been bad."

"I figured," she said, allowing the slightest of smiles to appear behind her cowl. "Next time, try to avoid making a run to the pharmacy in the middle of the night."

The boy considered telling her about the whole, long chain of events that had led him to having to venture out of the apartment at such a bad hour. Then he realized she probably wouldn't care to know all that.

"I will," he pledged instead.

Batgirl simply nodded reply. Then, she took out a grappling gun and fired it. The hook caught on some part of a nearby building and she went swinging off, soon disappearing into the shadows from whence she had come.

"What a crazy night," the boy mused aloud.

Then he decided to examine the bottle of medicine he held, just to make sure everything was accounted for. If he had to crawl around the area on his hands and knees looking for spilled pills, he'd rather find that out now than when he got home.

Yet when he held the bottle up to his eyes, he found that there was something that looked like a piece of paper inside it that hadn't been there when he'd gotten the bottle at the pharmacy. Frowning, he opened the cap and then pulled it out… discovering that it was a ten thousand yen note.

He smiled, and looked to the shadows, wishing to thank the dark lady, but she was long gone.

* * *

"Welcome home, Mayumi-san," Motomu said as she pulled the Batcycle back into the cave. "How was your evening?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," she replied, removing her cowl and shaking her hair out. "Turns out that even the wonderful 'city of tomorrow' has plenty of crime that needs to be taken care of. The people here recognize me, eventually, but no one's afraid of me yet."

"I'm sure you will have that rectified soon," Motomu said.

"I'd better," Mayumi said darkly as she put her glasses back on. "I can't be a symbol if the criminals aren't afraid of me, and if I'm not a symbol—"

"Then you're a mere vigilante," Motomu finished dryly. "Yes, you've told me of the philosophy you apply to this before."

Already at her workbench and seeing to the task of replenishing the supplies from her utility belt that she'd expended that night, as well as checking all her equipment for damage and wear, Mayumi allowed herself a small smirk.

"Ah, so we _have_ had this conversation before," she said. "In that case, you can skip your customary warning to make sure that I only make the criminals fear me, and not the entire general public."

"Hmm," Motomu grunted, "so you do listen to me."

"Always," Mayumi replied.

"In that case, I'll tell you to leave this chore to me and get to bed," Motomu said. "You could do with at least a few hours' sleep."

"I suppose you're right," Mayumi conceded, stepping away from her workbench. "After all, tomorrow is my first day at my new school."

* * *

The next morning found the representative of class 2-A walking down to the school office, wondering why she'd been summoned there. However, when she arrived at the only room in the school that had air conditioning, Hikari Horaki found that she could take a guess.

The unfamiliar teenage girl who stood in the office was a rather obvious hint.

"Hello," Hikari greeted both the girl and the wizened old secretary, turning her attention to the latter. "You called for me?"

"Yes. Your class has a new student. Miss Mayumi Yamagishi here," the old woman said, gesturing to the other girl. "You're to help her adjust to her new school."

"Of course, ma'am," Hikari said, and then turned her full attention to the new girl.

She was of average height, with long black hair, which was far from extraordinary in Japan. There was a small mole on her chin, and a pair of large, round glasses sat on her face. She wore a simple green skirt, white shirt, and yellow sleeveless sweater over that.

"Hello," Hikari said with a small bow, "welcome to our school. I'm Hikari Horaki."

"Thank you," the girl said softly, returning the gesture. "I'm Mayumi."

"Yes, the secretary told me," Hikari said.

"Oh," the girl replied, bashfully looking away from Hikari.

_Wow, she's really shy,_ Hikari thought sympathetically.

"It's okay," the class rep said as comfortingly as possible. "Come on, let me show you our classroom."

"Of course," Mayumi said, and quickly fell in step behind her.

"So, what brings you to Tokyo-3?" Hikari asked. "Most people have been moving out of the city ever since the Angels started showing up, not moving in."

"My… parents' company does a lot of business here," Mayumi replied, her voice perhaps a couple of decibels louder than the one Rei Ayanami constantly used.

Curious, Hikari considered asking what company her parents worked for, then decided against it. There was a good chance that any company that did a lot of business in Tokyo-3 was tied to NERV, and if that was the case, Mayumi probably couldn't tell her anything about it anyway. Asking would probably just fluster the poor girl further.

"Well, everybody's going to be really curious about you," Hikari said as cheerfully as she could.

"They'll forget about me quickly," Mayumi replied. "They always do."

The bespectacled girl didn't whine as she said this, or sigh, or sound despondent or angry or… anything. It was just a statement of fact, which somehow made it all the more wrenching for Hikari to hear.

"I'm sure you'll fit in just fine here," Hikari said, then ventured a small smile. "At least, as soon as you get the school's uniform."

"Oh, right, I'll do that as soon as possible," Mayumi vowed earnestly.

"I'm sure you will," Hikari said as they entered the classroom.

"Where do I sit?" Mayumi asked.

"Oh, you can have that seat…" Hikari hesitated as she looked at the numerous vacant desks in the room, "right there," she finished, pointing at a desk near the back, where she suspected Mayumi would feel most comfortable.

"Thank you," Mayumi said, giving Hikari a small bow and then heading toward her new desk to sit down.

The class rep almost stopped her and offered to introduce her to the other girls in class. However, a cluster of said girl suddenly broke out into giggles, already laughing at the nerd. Hikari just sighed and found her own seat.

* * *

Mayumi did her best not to let her mind wander as the Sensei lectured them on and on about the world before the Second Impact occurred. She did her best to maintain focus whenever she wasn't at her home, the one place where she truly allowed her guard down and let herself relax.

However, the old teacher's endless droning was starting to affect even her. She'd been prepared to not learn anything; Mayumi was a voracious reader and had learned from some very gifted tutors in her time. Indeed, she probably should have been in high school, if not college.

What she wasn't prepared for was the somnolent quality of the teacher's voice, and despite her best efforts, Mayumi found her mind wandering.

_Everything's going smoothly so far,_ she thought. _Nobody even suspects that I'm _that_ Mayumi Yamagishi._

That much didn't surprise her. Colossal though Yamagishi Enterprises was, it wasn't a household name like Coca-Cola or Sony. The company made high-tech components for various other products, something that didn't tend to get a whole lot of attention from the mainstream media. Even to military otakus, who would drool over the kind of combat vehicles and equipment that needed YE-made parts to run, the vast company was fairly obscure.

_Not only does nobody recognize my name, but the whole bookworm persona's still holding perfectly, too,_ she mentally added.

This thought caused Mayumi to wonder, not for the first time, if the way she acted today reflected at all the way she would have been, had she and her parents not danced with the devil in the dark all those years ago. She supposed it was possible; she had been a shy and quiet girl back then. Yet she couldn't quite believe that she could, in any world or any reality, behave like she currently did while out in public and not be faking it. She just felt that far removed from the cripplingly bashful teenager she pretended to be.

Pushing her glasses up slightly to allow her fingers to rub at her eyes, Mayumi forced these thoughts out of her mind and focused upon what she planned to concern herself with when the lunch period rolled around.

NERV's chosen Children.

There were two in the class at the moment, which was something Mayumi had managed to discover prior to moving to Tokyo-3 with a surprising lack of difficulty. One was Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Unit One, who'd destroyed the Third and Fourth Angels by himself, as well as firing the kill shot against the Fifth. From what Mayumi had learned, he tended to cause a lot of collateral damage but got the job done. Rei Ayanami, the pilot of Unit Zero, had so far only provided support in the battle against the Fifth Angel. This was due to injuries she'd suffered.

Either one was potentially her key into NERV, Mayumi knew. And getting into NERV meant once and for all having the truth behind the death of her parents; murdered by a crazed mugger looking for some quick cash or assassinated by someone who'd wanted their mysterious research to stop.

They were the whole reason she was here, instead of continuing her education under private tutors.

_Two chances,_ she thought. _Only two chances, at least until the Second Child arrives._

The bell signaling the start of the lunch period rang then, releasing the students from the torment of the endless Second Impact lecture.

Mayumi got up and subtly followed the two EVA pilots. The two of them didn't walk together, but fortunately, they didn't go to separate areas of the school to eat, both proceeding to the schoolyard. Ayanami sat alone at a picnic table which was situated beneath a leafy tree, while Ikari went off to eat in the company of two other boys.

Finding a relatively secluded spot from which she could see both pilots, Mayumi sat down and began to eat her own lunch. She barely tasted her food, though Motomu had made it himself, and it was very good. Her attention was too focused on surreptitiously observing both the pilots.

_Ikari barely contributes to those other guys' conversation, even when they ask him to,_ she noted, which surprised her. She hadn't expected the pilot who had wrecked such havoc upon the city in the process of defeating the first two Angels to appear so passive.

Ayanami just sat at the table and ate in complete silence. The girl never seemed to take her attention off her food, though she wasn't shoveling it down, either. She moved slowly and with an economy of movement that was extremely unusual in teenagers.

_She's a quiet one,_ Mayumi thought. _Good._

Ayanami being a quiet girl meant she didn't have to break character at all to approach her. She'd just be one shy and quiet girl tentatively trying to make friends with another.

Finishing her lunch, Mayumi walked over to Ayanami. "Hello," she said softly. "I'm Mayumi Yamagishi."

Rei's crimson eyes turned to look at her. "Hello."

Mayumi frowned slightly. "What's your name?"

"Why do you wish to know?" Rei responded.

"Uh, I thought we could be friends," Mayumi answered.

"Why?"

"I just did," Mayumi said. "Don't you want friends?"

"Not particularly," Rei said simply. There was no condensation or hostility in her voice. She was merely answering a question.

"I see," Mayumi said. "I'll just leave you, then."

Rei just gave a very slight nod in response as Mayumi walked off.

_What an unusual girl,_ the bespectacled girl thought as she walked away from Ayanami. _Looks like I only have one chance left. I have to make sure I don't blow this one._

* * *

After the end of a typically long school day, the bell finally rang, releasing the students and bringing an end to the incessant droning of their teacher.

"Thank you, God," Toji said under his breath as all the students began to gather up their things so they could make good on their escape.

"We going to the arcade today?" Shinji asked as got up.

"I can't go," Toji said. "Got basketball practice today."

"My Dad will kill me if I don't get my history grade up," Kensuke said glumly. "I have to go home and study for the test on Friday."

"Oh," Shinji said, disappointed. "Okay. I guess I'll see you around then."

The three said their good-byes and then parted ways. The Third Child gathered up his books and headed out of the classroom, planning to return home and do a little homework.

It wasn't exactly what he'd hoped to do after school; NERV had been calling him for tests after school all the time lately, and he finally had a day where they were leaving him alone. He didn't want to spend it at the apartment doing homework with no one but Pen-Pen for company until Misato returned that evening.

_It's not like it's their fault they can't spend time with me,_ he thought, chiding himself against resenting Toji and Kensuke.

His head full of glum musings, Shinji wasn't really paying as much attention to where he was as he walked. So it was perhaps unsurprising that he collided with someone when he turned a corner on his way out of the school building.

"Oofph!"

"Ah!"

He and the other student he'd walked right into were both knocked backwards by the force of the impact, the two of them landing on their rear ends in a shower of text books and school supplies.

Shinji groaned and rubbed his head as he caught his bearings, the whole incident having caught him completely by surprise.

"Oh!" a girl's voice suddenly squeaked. "I'm so sorry! Here, let me help you."

He blinked and looked up to see a raven haired girl with a small mole on her chin rushing about to pick up all the scattered text books, pencils, and notebooks.

"It's okay," Shinji said after a second. "It was my fault. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going."

"I'm sure it was at least partially me," the girl said, shyly looking away from him. "I still don't know my way around here quite yet."

"Oh, you're the new girl, right?" Shinji said as he began to help in the task of picking up everything, the fact that she wasn't wearing the school's uniform finally registering in his mind.

"Yes," she replied. "I'm Mayumi Yamagishi. Hey, is this my geometry textbook, or yours?"

"It must be yours," Shinji said. "Mine has a bent corner."

"Ah," she said.

Shinji got to his feet, then, after a moment of hesitation, offered her a hand up. Mayumi paused, then took it, and he pulled.

He apparently underestimated his own strength, because not only did he pull her back to her feet, he nearly pulled her straight into him. As it was, they ended up with their faces very close to one another's.

A very tense moment passed in which Shinji forgot to breathe.

Then the girl quickly pulled away from him. "Sorry," she said, turning her head so her face was hidden behind the ebony curtain of her long hair.

Shinji himself stared at the floor tiles as he felt his face heat. "My fault," he said. "Well, I'll see you later, Yamagishi."

The Third Child turned and had already taken a few steps away before he heard her.

"Wait," she called softly.

He turned around.

"Um, Ikari, I was… I was wondering," she stammered, not looking him in the eye, "where do you live? Because if it's near me, I was thinking that we could maybe… walk home together? I'd like it if someone could tell me a little more about this city." She added quickly.

"Oh," he said, then told her the location of Misato's apartment building.

"That's only a few blocks away from me," she said. "Um, would you mind if I…?"

Shinji shrugged. "If you want to," he said, "but I should tell you that I don't really know this city that well myself. I haven't been here too long."

"You've been here longer than I have," Mayumi said. "Please, lead the way."

* * *

"Well, Mayumi-san, I can't say that I care for your methods very much," Motomu commented some days later.

In those days, Mayumi had spoken with Shinji as often as she could, and she had walked home with him a few more times. The pilot of Unit One was slowly starting to become more at ease around her, though it was still always her who sought him out.

"I can't say that I do, either," Mayumi confessed. "He's actually a nice boy. But I just can't pass an opportunity like this up, and Ayanami wanted nothing to do with me. I'll let him down easy when the time comes. He'll never realize that it was anything more—or less—than a teenage relationship that eventually sputtered out."

"And what about you, Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked.

"Me?" she said. "Listen, Motomu, if you're worried that I'll have to do certain…things with him to keep up the charade, don't be. He's surprisingly timid. He won't try to pressure me into anything."

"Hmm," Motomu grunted. "You know, Mayumi-san, it's not…wise to spend one's teens simply pretending to have relationships. It's not normal."

"In case you haven't noticed, Motomu, I'm not normal," Mayumi replied. "I haven't been since I was eight."

Any reply he might have made was cut off when the helicopter that they rode within gently touched down by a score of others. The pilot slid open the door that separated the cockpit from the passenger section and said, "We've arrived, Yamagishi-san."

She nodded. "Thank you," she said. "Motomu, are you coming?"

"With your permission, Mayumi-san, I shall remain here," he replied. "I have never enjoyed the company of the rich and powerful very much. Present company excluded, of course." He added.

Mayumi allowed herself a small smile. "Very well," she said. "I'll see you later."

She disembarked from the small YE helicopter, smoothing out the gray pants suit she wore once she got on the ground. Before venturing into the large building where everyone was streaming into, she allowed herself a few moments to look at the ruined cityscape around her.

_Old Tokyo,_ she thought. _The former capital of Japan… now it's no good for anything except a place to show off new military hardware. The whole world's been so much darker since Second Impact._

Shaking these thoughts off, Mayumi proceeded to the great convention hall, which was one of the few buildings in the city that was both intact and above the water level. There was going to be a lot of speeches and other pomp before the Jet Alone demonstration actually occurred, of course, and this building was where it was all going to take place.

_This is going to be a very long day,_ she thought. _Hopefully, it won't also be a pointless day._

* * *

"Man, this is _so_ boring," Misato complained as she munched on the finger foods that had been set out for the audience. "And this damn dress uniform is _really_ uncomfortable."

"Would you behave and carry yourself with a little dignity for once?" Ritsuko hissed. "We're representing NERV here, and you can't stop squirming like a child."

"Relax, Rits," Misato said. "Nobody's actually looking at us. We're with the old agency that has the obsolete weapon. We might as well be lepers for how much everyone here wants to associate with us."

That much Ritsuko supposed she couldn't debate. The table for the NERV party (which consisted solely of the Operations Director and the Project-E Chairperson), sat in the center of the great room, and as a result, everyone else was sticking close to the walls.

It vaguely reminded her of an experiment she'd done once, when she was just a small child first learning about science. Throw some black pepper into a bowl of water, then dunk in a bar of soap. The pepper would all move to the edge of the bowl, away from the soap.

Having nothing better to do, she told Misato about these thoughts. The purple-haired woman released a brief, uncouth burst of laughter.

"You science types are weird," she declared.

"Excuse me?" a small voice came from behind the two of them.

Both women turned to see a girl no older than the EVA pilots standing nearby. She was wearing what looked like a very expensive pants suit, but her stiff, nervous posture made it obvious that she felt she didn't quite belong there, despite being better dressed for the event than most of the other women present.

"Hello," Misato said slowly, confused by the presence of someone so young at the unveiling ceremony for a new super weapon.

"You're the NERV party, correct?" the girl asked.

"I wouldn't call it much of a party," Misato replied with a small, rueful smile. "But yeah. Who're you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl said. "I'm Mayumi Yamagishi."

The name meant nothing to Misato, so she turned to Ritsuko, hoping her bottle blond friend would have the answer.

"She's the heir to Yamagishi Enterprises," Ritsuko explained.

Misato had never heard of Yamagishi Enterprises and continued to stare blankly at Ritsuko, who sighed in a long suffering sort of way. "They make a lot of the components we use in EVA."

"Oh!" Misato said as she finally understood why a teenage girl was present at the JA demonstration.

"So what brings you out here?" Ritsuko asked Mayumi. "I'd heard that you don't do a lot so far as running Yamagishi Enterprises is concerned, and that you avoid this sort of thing like the plague."

"Oh, well, normally I do," Mayumi answered, "but this is very important to Yamagishi Enterprises. The company will lose a lot of money if the Evangelion Project is cancelled. Hokkaido Heavy Industries has all the rights to create the JSSDF's Jet Alone robots."

"I see," Akagi said. "Well, it's nice to find that somebody else here isn't rooting for the Jet Alone to replace EVA."

Mayumi nodded. "I feel the same way, Miss…?"

"Dr. Ritsuko Akagi."

"Oh, yes, I've heard of you," Mayumi said. "I read your paper on the fundamentals of copying basic human impulses and emotions into a gray-ware computer system."

Ritsuko perked up slightly. "Really? What did you think of it?"

"It was brilliant," Mayumi said, "but I have to wonder what someone would ever use such technology for."

"I'm sure a use will be discovered eventually," Ritsuko said, suddenly looking rather uncomfortable.

Mayumi nodded, allowing it to drop at that, and turned to Misato. "Captain Katsuragi, right?" she asked tentatively.

Misato blinked. "You've heard of me, too?" she asked, surprised.

Mayumi smiled sheepishly. "Well, not from the same source," she said. "I recently started at Shinji's school and we've become friends, I guess. He's mentioned you a couple of times."

This was actually a lie, as the quiet boy and the apparently quiet girl didn't engage in very much conversation, as one might expect. Mayumi had learned about Misato from other sources.

"Oh," Misato said. "Shinji hasn't said anything about you to me."

The purple haired woman felt like kicking herself as soon as the words were out of her mouth. The disappointed expression that appeared on Mayumi's expression only made this impulse stronger.

"He doesn't tell me about a lot of things," Misato added quickly. "You know teenagers. The _last_ person they want to talk about the important things with is their guardian."

"I suppose," Mayumi said uncertainly. "If you'll excuse me, I guess I should probably do a little more elbow-rubbing while I'm here."

She walked off then, quickly melting into the crowd of businessmen, scientists and military officers. Once the girl was out of sight, Misato allowed her head to slam down onto the surface of the table.

"Real smooth, Misato," Ritsuko said with a smirk.

The purple haired woman just groaned. "Shinji could so use a girlfriend," she said. "If I just torpedoed his chance of getting one… I don't know what I'll do."

"Well, it looks like we have more important things to deal with now," Ritsuko noted as the representative of Hokkaido Heavy Industries, which built the Jet Alone, took the stage.

* * *

After speaking with Katsuragi and Akagi, Mayumi returned to the table that had been reserved for important figures from other corporations. A few of them recognized her, and Mayumi greeted them politely, but soon she was left alone with her thoughts.

Seeing Katsuragi was the main reason Mayumi had gone to the JA demonstration. She didn't think there was much of a chance that the woman could potentially aid her in infiltrating NERV, either voluntarily or without realizing it, but she could help her in getting closer to Shinji.

All in all, it had been as productive a meeting as Mayumi could have hoped for. So why did she feel displeased? Was she genuinely disappointed that Shinji hadn't mentioned her to Katsuragi?

_Absurd,_ she thought immediately, her mental voice sounding far more like Batgirl than Mayumi.

As always.

The man doing the demonstration chose that moment to step onto the stage and greet the crowd, and Mayumi turned her attention to him, glad to have a reason to stop thinking about her encounter with Katsuragi.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen," Shiro Tokita said. "Today, I have the honor of unveiling the weapon that will destroy all the Angels which attack the Earth in the future: the Jet Alone robot!"

The speaker rambled on for a few minutes about the wonders of the recently constructed robot, then took questions from the audience. Ritsuko Akagi rose to the subtle challenge, asking a few questions about the dangers of the robot's onboard nuclear reactor. Tokita dealt with her easily, including a few barbs at Evangelion in the process, and she sat back down, effectively surrendering.

_Hmm, I expected more fight from her,_ Mayumi thought.

Soon enough, it was time for the actual demonstration. Everyone directed their gaze to a large screen, and watched as the massive robot activated and left the great scaffolding that had been erected around it for the purpose of construction.

The first steps of the Jet Alone were far more auspicious than those of Evangelion Unit One, though that wasn't a very grand achievement. Tokita preened as the metal giant moved. Out of the corner of her eye, Mayumi spotted Katsuragi saying something to Akagi.

_Nothing good, I'm sure,_ Mayumi thought.

It was only minutes later that things began going straight to hell. Klaxons started to blare, and various technicians began to report that they had lost the ability to remotely control the JA. Not only that, but the metal colossus' reactor was rapidly starting to overheat.

This news caused all the finely-dressed VIPs in the room to go surging toward the exit, a great tide of fleeing humanity. Within moments, the sky was thick with helicopters as everyone took to the skies, trying to escape from the impending atomic blast.

Mayumi stood motionlessly as the people streamed past her, Dr. Akagi's rather half-hearted attempt at poking holes in Tokita's claims of the JA's effectiveness starting to make sense to her now.

She couldn't be absolutely sure that NERV had sabotaged the JA, and yet she was. The only question in her mind was whether or not the thing's reactor would actually melt down and then explode if left alone.

Mayumi possessed a radiation-proof version of her batsuit, but it, along with a lot of her specialized equipment, was in the process of being shipped from Tokyo-2 to her new Batcave in Tokyo-3. She didn't even know exactly where it was at the moment.

She couldn't deal with this catastrophe as Batgirl, but there might be something she could do as Mayumi Yamagishi, she thought, as she watched Katsuragi approach Tokita.

"I have a plan," the purple haired woman announced. "I can get into that thing and shut it down from the inside. But I need you to give me the password to its systems."

Mayumi arched an eyebrow. Either Katsuragi wasn't in on it, or NERV's scheme to discredit the JA was needlessly elaborate. Mayumi was willing to bet that it was the former.

"I… I don't have the authority to give the password to you," Tokita said. "I have to consult with my superiors first."

"People could die before the stuffed shirts you answer to give you the go ahead!" Misato snapped. "Just give me the password."

"I can't," Tokita insisted. "I could lose my job."

"If your employers terminate you for doing the right thing, then you'll have a place at Yamagishi Enterprises," Mayumi said, walking forward. "I promise you that, Tokita-san."

The man hesitated, then turned to Misato and said, "'Hope'. The password is 'Hope'."

She nodded. "Thank you," she said to him, and then turned to Mayumi. "And thank you. The time you saved me might make all the difference. But now you should go back. It's not safe here."

Mayumi nodded. "No, I suppose it's not."

* * *

"The password failed," Mayumi said that evening as she looked up at the bat computer's screen, which was currently displaying of the Jet Alone's rampage.

It was mostly rather boring footage, since all the robot did was walk forward at a steady pace. However, things got more interesting when Unit One entered the picture, placing a woman in a curiously tight purple and white radiation suit on the robot. Said woman climbed inside and then Unit One went to the task of trying to keep the Jet Alone as still as possible.

"Katsuragi gets inside the thing, just like she planned, makes it to the reactor control room, and when the password fails, she tries to push the shut off rods into the reactor herself," Mayumi said.

"Well, she's certainly tenacious," Motomu commented.

"The odds of that working were roughly nil," Mayumi said, "but she didn't have the time to escape. I suppose that if you're falling off a cliff, there's no harm in flapping your arms."

Motomu grinned slightly. "I can't fault that logic."

"Anyway," Mayumi continued, "she's at this for several minutes, but of course it doesn't work. Then, just as the reactor's about to blow, either she manages to push the shut down rods in with physical strength, or the safeties kick in and do it."

"Mechanical safety systems usually don't have a sense of the dramatic," Motomu said.

"They do if they're programmed to," Mayumi said. "And inserting the shut-down rods manually would require superhuman strength. Very superhuman."

"So you suspect that someone sabotaged the Jet Alone?" Motomu asked.

"Yes," Mayumi replied. "There are only two suspects who had the means and the motive to do it: NERV and me. And since I know I didn't do it, that leaves NERV."

"So what do you intend to do?" Motomu asked.

"Hokkaido Heavy Industries pinned all their hopes onto the Jet Alone project," Mayumi said, rather than answering him directly. "After what happened today, they're doubtlessly on the verge of bankruptcy. I want you to call Lucius and tell him I want to see about buying it."

"I'm sure Mr. Fox will tell you that acquiring a major corporation will take a good deal of time," Motomu said.

"Ah, red tape, the bane of my existence," Mayumi said. "I know it'll take a long time, Motomu, but I can't ignore a possible method of gaining leverage against NERV. Once I own that company, I can investigate the Jet Alone incident properly, then either litigate or threaten to litigate, whichever suits my purpose better at the time."

"I see," Motomu said. "But if that's the plan, then why are you…?" he gestured to Mayumi, who was currently clad in the batsuit from the neck down.

"NERV's a tough nut to crack," Mayumi replied as she removed her glasses and picked up her cowl. "I have to come at it from as many directions as possible until I hit a weak spot."

"You don't intend to try and infiltrate NERV headquarters?" Motomu asked, sounding rather alarmed at the idea.

"Not tonight," Mayumi replied. "Even I can't go there without knowing anything about the place. But NERV's master computer runs the whole city, which means that every important municipal building in the city has a direct line to the MAGI. I think I can sneak into one of those without being caught."

Motomu sighed. "Be careful, Mayumi-san."

"I always am," she replied as she pulled on her cowl. "Don't wait up for me."

She walked over to her motorcycle and climbed on. The engine came to life with a roar and Batgirl was soon peeling out of her headquarters.

* * *

Author's Notes: I realize that having Batgirl not participate in the JA incident might come off as rather anticlimactic, but I didn't really see how Mayumi could find the time to get suited up, reach the JA, and then achieve anything more than Misato did in canon. Plus, it sort of sets the tone for the fic, since Mayumi's not going to be clashing with the Godzilla-sized monsters much. No, our girl's going to be mostly splitting her time between trying to infiltrate NERV and cleaning up the streets. I'm quite looking forward to it, since it's so different from the other SOE stories and it gives me a chance to explore Tokyo-3 a bit more.

I noticed that a few of you, dear reviewers, are asking about the prospect of Shinji becoming Robin or Nightwing. I'm not 100 percent sure where I'm going with this fic (there are a lot of possibilities), but I really doubt I'm going to do that. I really can't picture Shinji doing that, and I've never been a huge fan of Robin anyway.

Anyway, I promised to explain my decision to make Mayumi Batgirl last chapter. I felt that you couldn't do a DC based SOE-verse without including a bat in there somewhere, but this left me with a problem. To make a character Batman, or in this case Batgirl, they need certain things, including lots of really cool toys and an appropriately tragic past. The list of ladies in Eva who could have gotten the toys is pretty short and, while there are plenty of ladies with tragic pasts in the world of Eva, none of them have the right kind of tragic past. What happened to Misato or Asuka, for instance, wouldn't motivate anyone to put on a cape and fight crime in the streets. Plus, the ladies with no back stories didn't feel right for the role of Batgirl.

Then I thought of Mayumi. Even more than Mana, this girl's a blank slate, having appeared in a grand total of one Eva video game and that's it. I felt that I could write her back story to be whatever it had to be to make her into Batgirl. Plus the whole shy, bookworm personality she has would serve as an even better cover and contrast to her alter ego than Bruce Wayne's playboy persona.

Shadow Syndicate, right now I plan to try and keep Mayumi's arsenal restricted to the fairly standard Batman weaponry, but don't be shocked if new goodies turn up.

Belthasar, given that the one thing Mana's particularly notable for is being the pilot of a giant, non-EVA robot, I kind of feel obligated to make her a tech hero.

Rakna, definitely went with her suit having similar capabilities as the one from Batman Beyond, but with a different appearance. I kind of figure Mayumi needs the boost, since regardless of how much she trains, she's still a fourteen-year-old girl, but I never particularly liked the look of Terry's batsuit.

Ryousanki, I have to admit that I don't expect to be able to keep up the pace I started the SOE2 series. I've already started to slow down a bit, and my hours at my job could potentially go nuts starting, oh, tomorrow. By the way, as you've probably realized, I went with a batsuit that looks like the Cassandra Cain version. Barbara Gordon's just struck me as being too cheerful for the "main bat" to wear, plus Cassandra's cowl would hide Mayumi's mole.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, as well as to my beta reader. Sorry, but I couldn't think up an omake for this chapter. Next time.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Two: **Battle Lines

Batgirl's cape billowed out behind her as she rode the Batcycle through the streets of Tokyo-3.

Motomu had once asked what she would do if she was ever confronted by the police while riding the thing, since she was too young to legally drive. Mayumi had responded that this would probably be the least of her problems if she was ever apprehended by the police.

Of course, considering that she usually took to the streets during the dead of night, when traffic was at a minimum, getting pulled over for speeding wasn't something she really ever worried about.

Soon, she was pulling up beside a government archive building, her destination for that evening. It was a municipal building, meaning it had the all important link to the MAGI supercomputers that she required, but security would be light.

_A winning combination for me,_ Batgirl thought as she maneuvered her cycle into an alleyway that was next to the government building.

She activated the bike's anti-theft system and then looked around. There were windows on the side of the building she needed to get into, but they were all well above her head.

Not a problem.

Forgoing the use of any of her gadgets, Batgirl faced the building opposite the one she wanted to get into, leapt several feet into the air, and then extended her legs, pushing off the wall before her. Displaying a grace and agility that most gymnasts would have envied, she twisted in mid-air, just in time to land soundly on the ledge of one of the government building's windows.

The window itself opened smoothly when she pushed it. Apparently, its great height had made people think there was no need to lock it.

One thing Batgirl had discovered was that one never realized how terrible the security measures in were most places were until one found a need to break into them. It was something that made her job both easier and more difficult.

Extracting a small knife from her utility belt, she cut a hole in the insect screen and then slipped inside, shutting the window after her. Unsurprisingly, all the lights in the place were out, and it was pitch dark.

"Night vision," Batgirl whispered.

Immediately, a clear, green-tinted image of her surroundings was displayed before her eyes. The girl in black nodded in satisfaction and began to creep down the hallway, toward her first destination. There were a few security cameras along her way, but she avoided their electronic gazes with the ease of a shadow.

"Normal mode," she breathed as she approached the security office, the only illuminated room in the building.

Batgirl tip-toed toward the door, keeping close to the wall at all times. With one hand, she extracted a small mirror from her utility belt and angled it so that she could see the inside of the room with it.

The reflection in the mirror revealed a man who couldn't have been any more of a stereotypical security guard if he'd tried to be. The man was a bit overweight, and he was reclining in his chair, watching a portable television rather than any of the monitors on the walls that displayed the security footage.

Still, she wasn't willing to gamble that he wouldn't notice movement on any of those monitors.

Putting the mirror away, she extracted a small silver object from her belt that was the shape of a hockey puck and about half the size. She set it on the floor and then gave it a push, sending it sliding in the security office. Once it came to a stop, the top popped up, revealing a very small grate.

Batgirl pushed a button on her belt, and a small screen appeared on the back of her suit's left glove, glowing red numbers counting down from thirty seconds. When a half a minute had elapsed, she walked into the room, finding the security guard fast asleep.

Nodding with satisfaction, she picked up the now expended canister of knock out gas and returned it to its place inside her belt, then took out a small electronic device. She attached this to the bottom of the security station's console, and the images on all the monitors flickered for a moment before they returned to normal.

Or at least, they seemed normal. However, the screens weren't displaying streaming feed from the cameras any longer, but loops of recorded footage of empty rooms.

Her task completed, Batgirl quickly made her way up to the second floor, where the relative big shots of the archives had their offices. She easily picked the lock of one such office and walked in, seating herself at the person's desk and booting up their computer. She was soon confronted by the expected prompt.

**Enter password.**

Far from thwarted, Batgirl took a zip drive from her belt and inserted it into the proper port. Immediately, a new window opened up on the computer screen.

**Running program: "Crypto-Cracker."**

Letters and numbers began to scroll across the screen at a dizzying pace, far quicker than any human being could ever hope to keep up with. Batgirl didn't try, and instead simply waited patiently for her program to do its thing.

**Access granted.**

Allowing herself a small smile of triumph beneath her cowl, Batgirl removed the zip drive and watched as the computer's desktop appeared on the screen. Once it was finally ready for her commands, she began to type, her fingers remarkably dexterous despite the gloves that covered them.

Soon she had accessed the computer's link to the MAGI, but that link was obviously heavily regulated. It had been set up in such a way that all that could be done was the transmission of data to the supercomputers. Presumably, when the MAGI had orders to issue to the archive workers, they did so via email rather than a direct link. There was seemingly no way to actually access what was in the MAGI themselves, not from where she was.

The caped crusader frowned beneath her cowl. While she'd certainly expected security programs to be in place, she hadn't foreseen the link being set up in such a manner. She'd thought that the masters of the MAGI would have more faith in their computers' ability to resist hacking than that.

She knew that she probably should have called it quits at this point and left. There were other avenues through which she could continue trying to pry into NERV, and it wasn't as if she hadn't known that failure was a possibility.

However, she felt like she was so close to the answers that she'd sought for so long that she couldn't bear to give up quite yet.

_Perhaps there's a way around this,_ she thought as she began to type again, hoping that the connection wasn't as unidirectional as it looked.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain security guard was rousing from his slumber. Given the dose of knock out gas he'd inhaled, he should have barely woken up in time to avoid considerable embarrassment when the day guard arrived to take over. However, a select few individuals weren't affected by the gas nearly as strongly as most (a flaw that Mayumi was constantly trying to correct), and he just happened to be one of them.

The man yawned and stretched as he awoke, sitting up in his chair.

"What happened?" he mumbled sleepily to no one in particular.

He'd be the first to admit that he wasn't the most attentive security guard in the city (so long as his boss wasn't around, of course). There was generally very little need to be, since there was almost nothing of any real value in the archives. While there did exist crooks stupid enough to think it was a good place to rob anyway, they were rare, and most of them barely ever had the brains to actually get inside the building without triggering an alarm.

However, even he didn't make a habit of falling asleep on the job, and he hadn't been that tired before he'd conked out.

"Something's weird," he muttered to himself.

He looked up at the security feeds and saw no movement on any of them. Yet he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He shouldn't have conked out like that.

_Guess now is as good a time as any to do my patrol, he decided eventually,_ grabbing his flashlight.

The man sought nothing more than reassurance that all was well as he flicked on the light and walked out into the archive's dark hallways, like a child checking under the bed to confirm the absence of the monster he fears is lurking there. And for the first few minutes of his trek through the quiet building, he got exactly what he wanted. All was silent and generally as it should be.

Then he reached the building's second floor. Again, nothing seemed out of order. The floor was occupied mostly by cubicles, potted plants, and a few offices for the muckity-mucks of the department. He sent the beam from his flashlight across the main room and illuminated nothing unwelcome.

_Must have just dozed off,_ he thought. _Guess I need more coffee on these long nights._

He was about to head back to his little office and get back to watching his TV—there was a G-Gundam marathon on that night—when he heard it. The unmistakable _'clickity-clickity-click'_ of someone typing at a keyboard.

It lasted only for a moment before it stopped, but the guard was absolutely certain that it was what he'd heard. Which meant that someone had snuck inside and was accessing one of the computers for some reason.

His heartbeat rapidly accelerated and beads of sweat popped out on his brow. Unlike some of the people in his profession, he wasn't a real cop moonlighting as a guard for extra money. He'd never confronted an actual bad guy before. Hell, he was armed with _pepper spray!_

_Maybe I should head back downstairs and call the real cops?_ He thought.

It was a tempting idea, but what if the noise had simply been his imagination and there was no one there? His boss would fire him come morning for sure.

Besides, how dangerous could someone who thought that breaking into a municipal archives building was a good idea really be?

Steeling himself, the guard crept toward the door to the office where he thought he'd heard the noise come from, pepper spray in hand. He realized that he was breathing very fast, and willed himself to slow his rate of respiration.

_Nothing to it, man,_ he thought. _Just bust in there, and if someone's inside, give 'em a face full of pepper spray. Then call the cops and collect the accolades._

It sounded simple enough, but what if the intruder had a gun? What if they evaded his pepper spray? What if—?

_Ugh, get a hold of yourself, man!_ He thought. _Stop freaking out and do your damn job!_

Seizing this burst of determination before it could give way to fear, the guard quickly threw open the door to the office.

"All right! Hands where I can…" he trailed off. "…see them?"

The room was empty, the computer was powered down, and there was no sign of anything amiss. Well, except for the window which had been left standing open, allowing the warm night air to waft inside.

"The hell?" the guard asked, lowering his can of pepper spray.

Slowly, he approached the window and poked his head outside, shining his beam down on the street. However, there was no one in the street outside.

"What a weird night," he commented to himself, unaware that a floor below him, Batgirl was reclaiming the device she'd used to fool the security cameras and then making good her escape.

* * *

"So, how did it go this evening?" Motomu asked as the batcycle pulled into its spot in the cave, not much later.

"Awful," Mayumi grumbled as she pulled off her cowl. "The place simply didn't have the kind of access necessary for me to discover anything of value, and I was nearly seen."

"I'm sure it wasn't _that_ bad," Motomu said, trying to temper her self-recriminations, as usual.

Also as usual, Mayumi would have none of it. "I let my eagerness get the better of me, and I got sloppy," she said flatly.

"As you say, Mayumi-san," Motomu said with a soft sigh.

Most people, had they learned that Mayumi Yamagishi was Batgirl, would have believed that she was just a rich girl who'd become hooked on adrenaline, a brat who was lost in a fantasy land.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Mayumi was all too aware of the fact that she a mortal girl, and that one slip, one mistake, and it could all be over for her. That was why she was always pushing herself to be better, smarter, faster, and stronger. It was literally a matter of life and death.

"So do you plan to access a more important government building?" Motomu asked.

"No," Mayumi answered. "I have no doubt that none of them will have the kind of access I need. It looks like this plan was just one big dead end."

"I see," Motomu said, privately relieved. "Would you like me to see about the task of restocking your utility belt again?"

"Thank you, but no," Mayumi replied. "If I don't maintain my own equipment, I may become less familiar with it."

"I rather doubt that, Mayumi-san," Motomu replied.

"Yes, well, you deserve some sleep now and then, too," Mayumi countered, a small smile appearing on her face.

"Ah, I suppose _that_ I cannot debate against," Motomu said.

"Good night, Motomu," she said.

"Good night, Mayumi-san," he replied, and began to make his way to the stairs.

"Oh, one more thing," Mayumi said just before he'd left the Batcave.

"Yes, Mayumi-san?"

"I have dinner plans for tomorrow, so there's no need to cook for me," she said. "In fact, you should just take the evening off."

"Dinner plans? Has the board of directors managed to force you to accept some invitation?" Motomu asked.

"No, thank goodness," Mayumi replied. "It's something a little more…intimate."

* * *

It was a normal day in the life of Shinji Ikari. He had woken up, made breakfast, gone to school, headed to NERV to perform tests with one the deadliest weapons ever conceived by the mind of man, and was now heading back to the apartment. Nothing could be more ordinary, at least, not for him.

He probably should have known that all this normalcy was not to last.

"I'm home!" he announced as he walked in.

"Uh, welcome home," a certain raven-haired girl greeted him nervously.

Shinji blinked in surprise. "M-Mayumi? What are you doing here?" he asked, confused.

Mayumi turned her head so she wasn't looking him in the eye any longer. "Misato-san invited me over for dinner," she explained.

Shinji was about to ask why his guardian had done that (he hadn't even known that Mayumi and Misato knew one another), when Misato herself emerged behind Mayumi, clad in her usual, "loafing about the apartment" attire.

Shinji held back a groan. _You'd think that she'd at least throw on a bra if she was going to invite people over here,_ he thought, feeling painfully embarrassed by his guardian's behavior.

"I thought we could use some company around here," Misato told Shinji cheerfully. "Now would you set the table, Shinji-kun? I already made dinner so all we have to do is get it on the table and eat."

Shinji paled. _Misato_ had already made dinner?

He threw Mayumi a look, trying to silently convey to her that she should run away right that instant if she valued her life. Mayumi gave him a confused look in return, clearly not getting it.

He sighed, hoping she'd be willing to speak to him after Misato's food was done with her digestive tract, and went resignedly to the kitchen to get what he needed to set the table.

"I can help," Mayumi spoke up.

Shinji quickly shook his head. "You're the guest, Mayumi. Besides, I can do it. It's no trouble."

Retrieving plates, cups, spoons, and chop sticks as quickly as he could, Shinji returned to where the two ladies waited, not wishing to leave Misato alone with Mayumi for any longer than was absolutely necessary.

Fortunately, apparently nothing had happened in the few seconds while he'd been away from them, and everyone sat down to eat the rather questionable meal that Misato had prepared without incident.

"Would you like some spice?" Misato offered Mayumi.

Shinji paled, seeing that Misato was holding up a jar containing a substance that he secretly referred to as "fiery death." He began frantically motioning at Mayumi that she should decline.

"Uh, no, thank you," Mayumi said, noticing his wild gesticulating.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one. "Hey, cut that out, Shinji!" Misato said indignantly, before turning her attention back to Mayumi. "Don't listen to him. It turns out that the guy who can face down giant monsters can't take a little spice."

With that, Misato sprinkled a liberal amount of the stuff on Mayumi's bowl of instant ramen, much to Shinji's distress. Mayumi mixed it around with her chopsticks, then slurped down a few noodles.

"How is it?" Misato asked.

When next she spoke, Mayumi sounded breathless, and the bespectacled girl was shocked that a jet of flame didn't burst from her mouth the second she opened it. "It's…d-delicious," she gasped out.

"Yes!" Misato cheered, pumping her fist.

Apparently deciding that this called for a celebration, the purple haired woman cracked open one of the cans of Yebisu she had waiting and downed the contents of it in one great gulp.

"YEEE-HAAAW!" she shouted, then crushed the empty can against her forehead. "That's the stuff!"

Unnoticed by Misato, Shinji buried his face in his hands. Mayumi was unable to restrain a small smirk, even as she gulped down water in an attempt to quench the inferno that Misato's combination of spices had ignited in her mouth.

"So, Mayumi," Misato said as she dug into her own food, shrugging off the mass dose of spices she'd applied to her meal, "what does Yamagishi Enterprises make for NERV exactly? I was never able to get that out of Ritsuko."

Hearing this, Shinji lowered his hands and looked up curiously.

"Oh, just certain high-tech components for the EVA's armor and stuff," Mayumi answered. "I couldn't tell you more than that, really; I don't do a lot so far as running the company's concerned."

"Just sit back and let the money roll in, huh?" Misato asked with a grin. "Well, I can't say I blame you. I'd probably do the same thing in your position."

"Yamagishi Enterprises?" Shinji asked, confused.

"Oh, yes, it is, well I suppose it _was_, my parents' company," Mayumi explained, looking sheepish. "I'm sorry I never told you I was an heiress, but it's not exactly what I like to be known as."

Shinji initially felt stung that Mayumi had kept this secret from him. After a moment of consideration, however, he started to understand. He didn't particularly like the way almost everyone tended to see him as the Third Child before he was anything else, so he certainly didn't go around advertising his status as an EVA pilot. Why should Mayumi be any different when it came to her owning some company?

"It's okay," Shinji said.

Mayumi smiled gratefully back at him, and Shinji felt his face heat up a bit. Then he saw Misato smirk out of the corner of his eye and knew he'd be teased about this later.

_At least she's holding that back until after Mayumi leaves,_ he thought, thanking whatever deities might be out there for small favors.

"So how are you liking Tokyo-3, Mayumi?" Misato asked around a mouthful of rice.

The evening continued on in this vein, with Misato provoking conversation in the two quiet teens, while getting progressively more and more tipsy. Finally, to Shinji's considerable relief, the meal was finished, and Mayumi announced that she should be leaving.

"I'll walk you out," Shinji offered immediately, getting up.

"Thank you," Mayumi said with a slight bow of her head.

The Third Child quickly led her out of the apartment, hoping to escape before Misato could make some crack about him being alone with Mayumi.  
"I'm sorry," he said vehemently the moment the door to the apartment was closed behind them. "I don't know what motivated her to do this, and I certainly didn't expect her to behave like that all night, and—"

"Shinji, it's really fine," Mayumi said, holding up her hands to stop him. "Misato is…quite a character, but she didn't offend me or anything."

"Really?" Shinji asked.

Mayumi smiled. "Really."

"Oh," Shinji said sheepishly. "Good. It kind of seemed that she was doing everything she could to embarrass me there."

"I think it would have been much worse if she was _trying_," Mayumi replied with a small grin.

Shinji chuckled despite himself. "Yeah, you're probably right," he agreed, then began to lead her toward the elevator. "I hope Misato's food doesn't hit you too hard."

"I don't think that will be too big of a problem," Mayumi replied, but her stomach suddenly decided to release an ominous gurgling sound. She blushed. "Um, but if you wanted to invite me over again—not that you're obligated to, of course—please, do it on your night to cook."

"R-Right," Shinji replied, a part of him feeling relieved that she seemed almost as awkward as he felt. "You know, I still don't get why Misato decided to invite you over out of the blue—not that I didn't want to see you, of course."

"Oh, I bumped into her a while back, at the Jet Alone unveiling ceremony," Mayumi said. "I think she thought she insulted me or something, and I guess she invited me over to make it up to me."

"Oh," Shinji replied as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. "Well, in any case, I'm, uh, glad that I got to see you, despite…everything." He finished helplessly.

Mayumi gave him a weak smile, understanding what he meant. "I was glad to see you, too," she said.

They had reached the sidewalk outside the apartment building by this point, which meant that it was about time for them to part ways. However, they just stood there for a moment and hesitated, not quite knowing how to say farewell.

Suddenly, Mayumi moved forward and hugged Shinji. She held the embrace for only a moment, not long enough for Shinji to recover from his surprise and reciprocate, then quickly let him go, her face red.

"Good night," she said.

"Uh, yeah, night," Shinji replied.

With that, Mayumi turned and practically sprinted away from him, her long black hair being blown by the wind as she went.

_Am I blushing for real?_ She thought incredulously as ran.

* * *

A few hours later found Mayumi back at the mansion, suffering from what was easily the worst bout of indigestion she'd ever experienced. The streets of Tokyo-3 would be without Batgirl that night.

"I could do that for you, Mayumi-san," Motomu offered as she put on the kettle, hoping that a cup of tea would help settle her stomach.

"Motomu, I have an upset stomach, I'm not dying. I'm perfectly capable of making tea," Mayumi replied while waving him off. "Besides, didn't I tell you to take the evening off?"

"Did you?" Motomu asked coyly. "I don't recall."

Mayumi just snorted in reply to that. The butler didn't seem very perturbed by it.

"Here, Mayumi-san, take this," he said, holding forward a medicine cup full of Pepto-Bismol.

Rather than argue, Mayumi accepted it and knocked back the pink medicine. Her stomach let out another angry gurgle, as though Misato's food was mocking the idea that mere Pepto could do anything to blunt its effects.

"So I take it that the evening was a wash, then?" Motomu asked.

"Not at all," Mayumi said. "Actually, it was _very_ productive."

"The Ikari boy?" the butler asked in a tone of weary disapproval with which Mayumi had grown quite accustomed.

"Well, yes, I think I made some progress there," Mayumi said, trying to forget about how Shinji had managed to invoke a genuine blush in her. "But the real success was this."

She placed a piece of paper on the kitchen counter. Motomu looked at it curiously, observing that it appeared to be a map of some kind of octagonal room. Someone had labeled the location of the WC with a bold red marker.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Oh, just a little something I 'borrowed' from Captain Katsuragi," Mayumi said, a small smile of satisfaction on her face. "It's a map of part of NERV."

* * *

"It could just be a coincidence, you know," Fuyutski told Gendo.

The two men sat inside Commander Ikari's cavernous office, which was somehow always dim despite the fact that the wall behind Gendo's desk was one great window that theoretically should have allowed considerable sunlight to stream in for at least part of the day.

At first glance, one might be tempted to liken it to a certain cave hidden beneath a certain opulent mansion. However, unlike the significantly more functional Batcave, the vast bulk of the space in the Commander's office was empty, and there merely for the sake of creating a more intimidating atmosphere.

It was why people secretly referred to the massive room as "the lair."

"How does the saying go, Sensei?" Gendo asked.

It was rhetorical question, and Fuyutski recognized as much, so he just kept silent and waited for the younger man to continue.

"Show me a coincidence, and I will open it up, and show you two people scheming inside of it," Gendo said. "I believe that is how it goes."

Fuyutski quirked an eyebrow. "Don't you think you're being rather paranoid?" he asked.

"When she's involved? No," Gendo answered simply, pointing at an item on his desk.

Said item was a very rare commodity indeed, for there weren't very many genuine photographs of Batgirl in existence.

"There's no proof that she's here," Fuyutski argued.

"On the contrary," Gendo said. "The attempt made to hack into the MAGI from the municipal archives building is strong evidence for that hypothesis—Batgirl has always had interest in secret government files, in addition to her vigilantism. How smoothly the intruder evaded the building security only adds credence to the possibility that it was her. And finally, the rising crime rates in Tokyo-2 would seem to indicate that she's no longer there."

"Let's say you're right," Fuyutski said. "So _what_ if she's here?"

Gendo just gave the older man one of piercing stares.

"Ikari, you know as well as I do that careful study of pictures Batgirl from a year ago to one taken more recently has shown that she's taller now," Fuyutski pressed on, growing exasperated. "She's _growing_. Ergo, she's a child. How dangerous could a child be?"

"The EVA pilots are all children, and they're some of most dangerous people on the planet," Gendo countered.

"Only because we put them in control of the Evangelions," Fuyutski pointed out.

"Batgirl doesn't lack her own arsenal of deadly weapons," Gendo replied. "And young or not, by all indications, she is exceedingly skilled. Someone like her poking around and looking for secrets at this delicate stage of the scenario cannot be tolerated."

"But what can you do about her?" Fuyutski asked. "NERV's resources are stretched thin as it is, and we have to prepare for the arrival of the Second Child and Unit Two, never mind the expedition to locate the Lance."

Gendo intertwined his fingers and leaned his face against his hands. "I was thinking of contracting some outside help."

* * *

A few days later, Shinji stretched as he emerged from the cramped helicopter, feeling his joints pop as he did so. Misato might have viewed the whole affair as some grand excursion, but he'd just as soon have stayed in the city.

"Hey, my hat!"

Toji, who along with Kensuke had accompanied them on their trip to the 'cute little boat' went sprinting across the deck of the super carrier _Over the Rainbow_, pursuing a baseball cap that the sea breeze had blown from his head. Before he could catch it, the hat was stopped when a foot clad in stylish red sandal

"Hello, Misato!" the redheaded owner of the foot in question called cheerfully, completely ignoring Toji's attempts to extract his hat.

"Hello, Asuka," Misato greeted. "My, you've gotten taller since I last saw you."

"And I haven't just gotten taller. My figure's filled out as well," Asuka boasted.

All of a sudden, another strong gust of salty air blew by, sending the skirt of Asuka's yellow sun dress upwards, and allowing the three teenage boys present, especially Toji, a rather good of her panties.

"Ack!" Asuka exclaimed, just before her hand lashed out, slapping the three boys in rapid succession.

_Great_, Shinji thought. _What else can happen today?_

Several kilometers below his feet, the massive form of the Sixth Angel stirred.

* * *

"It sounds like you had quite a day yesterday," Mayumi said, affixing an expression of shock that was only partially forced onto her face as Shinji concluded his tale.

"Tell me about it," Shinji said wearily. "That crazy rookie went on about how great she was, then she locked up when the time for real combat came. We almost died."

Secretly, Mayumi was willing to pardon that, largely because she had been briefly overwhelmed with fear and nearly died the very first time she'd ventured out as Batgirl. Such fear wasn't necessarily habit forming.

Not that it made much of a difference. Mayumi was going to approach the Second Child regardless of what her personality might be like or how effective or ineffective she was in combat. Because the Second Child held a key to the kingdom that Mayumi so fiercely wished to breach.

"What's NERV doing with her, by the way?" Mayumi asked in the perfect tone of mild curiosity.

Shinji shrugged. "They put her up at a hotel for now," he answered. "Other than that, I don't know."

Mayumi nodded, not allowing an iota of her disappointment at Shinji's dearth of knowledge on the important topic to show. "Um, there's one thing I've been meaning to ask you," she said.

He nodded and looked at her intently.

"Um, I was just wondering," Mayumi said, looking down at her hands, "why…why didn't you invite me along? Toji and Kensuke got to go."

She sounded so sad and disappointed that Shinji suddenly felt terrible about not asking her if she'd wanted to go.

"I'm sorry," he said at once.

"No, it's really okay," Mayumi replied quickly, in a tone that said it was anything but. "I just wanted to know why."

"I didn't think you'd want to come," Shinji answered. "Not after, uh, the dinner."

He knew that Misato could do no wrong in Toji and Kensuke's eyes, but he somehow suspected that Mayumi was not wowed by his guardian's charms like the two teenage boys. And after Misato had embarrassed the hell out of him a few nights ago, Shinji hadn't been at all keen at the idea of allowing the two to come into contact again. Despite what Mayumi had said, Shinji had become rather paranoid about what would happen should such an event occur again. Now, however, it looked like his efforts at preventing disaster had only ended up inviting it.

He really didn't want to lose Mayumi's friendship. Toji and Kensuke were great friends, to be sure, but sometimes he thought that Toji hung around him largely because the jock felt guilty about punching him in the face and then needing to be rescued by him. And sometimes it seemed like all Kensuke was interested in was NERV stuff. And there were the times when they _both_ only seemed to care about ogling Misato. Yet so far as he could figure, Mayumi received no fringe benefits from being friends with him. She was the only person who apparently sought his company solely because she wished his company.

Of course, he was less than up to the task of conveying any of this to her, so he'd been forced to offer her his lame shell of a reason.

He could tell by Mayumi's expression that she wasn't really buying it (though he had no idea that she was briefly considering the possibility that he suspected she was a spy, before ultimately rejecting the idea), and he felt guilt continue to twist in his stomach like a knife.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"It's really not a big deal," Mayumi insisted, then she smiled slightly, "but if you want, you can make it up to me."

"How?" Shinji asked.

"Well, maybe we could do something together after school?" Mayumi asked softly.

"Like a date?" Shinji blurted out, the words somehow bypassing his brain entirely on their way to his mouth.

Mayumi quickly turned her head, causing the raven black curtain of her hair to hide her face from his view. It was a motion Shinji was already becoming familiar with.

"No! I…I mean, I just meant as two friends," Mayumi said, her voice barely more than a squeak.

"Oh," Shinji said, feeling strangely relieved and disappointed at once. "Okay, sure, we can do that."

Before the conversation could go any further, the teacher entered the classroom and Hikari quickly forced the unruly group of students into silence.

"Class, before we begin, I have an announcement to make," Sensei said. "We have a new student joining us today."

And acting as if on a cue, Asuka entered the classroom. "Hello," she greeted everyone. "I'm Asuka. Asuka Langley Soryu. Charmed, huh?"

Mayumi had to expend considerable effort to not smirk at the look on Shinji's face.

* * *

Mayumi's attempts at getting close to Asuka were…less than successful, which was about what she'd expected. Despite having only been in school for a day, the Second Child had already made a huge splash and was well on her way to becoming the most popular girl in the whole school. As Mayumi sat firmly at the bottom of the school's proverbial food chain, Asuka had paid her very little mind.

Not that the redhead was precisely rude to her, but it was obvious that she viewed Mayumi as just another of her fans and hangers-on. This meant, of course, that getting close to Shinji was more important than ever.

So Mayumi made extra sure to meet up with Shinji after school that day. The two ended up at an ice cream parlor.

"Frozen yogurt?" Shinji asked as Mayumi received her order.

"I don't want to get fat," she replied.

This was perhaps understating the matter. Mayumi kept to an extremely stringent diet except on those occasions where it would arouse suspicion if she didn't eat more like a normal teenager.

Shinji, of course, was oblivious to any of this. "I don't think you need to worry about that too much," he replied as he took a lick off his vanilla cone.

Mayumi had never worn anything but a school uniform in his presence, and those didn't exactly put girls' figures on display. She also seemed to wear only uniforms that were a size or two too large for her, concealing her body even more. However, Shinji had never gotten the impression that she was fat. When he allowed it to, his imagination painted a picture of a slim but wholly unremarkable physique lurking beneath Mayumi's baggy clothes.

"Thank you," Mayumi said quietly. "This is really nice."

"It's nothing," Shinji said. "I'm sorry I didn't invite you along to the trip."

"Please, stop apologizing for that," Mayumi said with a small smile. "It's fine. I guess heading out to a warship to see a new EVA does kind of seem like 'guy stuff.'"

Shinji nodded, looking relieved.

"Can I ask you something?" Mayumi said, poking at her frozen yogurt with her spoon.

"Of course," Shinji replied.

"Why do you pilot EVA? You don't seem to like it very much," Mayumi commented.

Shinji grimaced. "I really don't want to talk about that, Mayumi," he said. "It's kind of…private. Besides, I hear about NERV all the time as it is. I just really don't want to be talking about during all of my off time. Sorry."

"It's really fine," Mayumi said. "I'm sorry I brought it up."

_Damn,_ she thought. _Maybe I should have pretended to be an otaku, like Aida…but then Aida might pursue me._

She grimaced slightly at the thought.

"Let's talk about something else, okay?" Shinji asked hopefully.

Mayumi allowed herself a small smile. "Sure."

* * *

About an hour later, Mayumi was returning to Yamagishi Manor. It hadn't been a terribly productive rendezvous, but she and Shinji had decided that they needed to have a similar one in the future.

_Whatever good it'll do, with him not wanting to talk about NERV with you,_ she thought.

However, she quickly chided herself against such ideas. Her relationship with Shinji was already starting to bear fruit, and she was becoming the person he vented to about things. The way he'd recounted his experience on the _Over the Rainbow_ to her proved that. And she suspected he might be venting about NERV a lot in the future.

"Good evening, Mayumi-san," Motomu greeted her as she walked inside. "You're home later than usual."

"Extra-curricular activities, Motomu," Mayumi answered casually.

"I don't suppose it would be the 'Ikari Club' that delayed you, would it?" Motomu asked.

"It might be," Mayumi replied as she headed toward her study, Motomu trailing behind her.

"You've been spending a lot of time with him recently," Motomu said. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were developing genuine affection for him."

"Nonsense," Mayumi said dismissively as she reached her destination, taking her school books from her bag and spreading them out over her desk.

The issue of having a double life, one of which was the caped crusader, didn't save one from the mundane annoyances of one's normal life, unfortunately. Which meant that Mayumi still had to do homework like everyone else.

"As you say, Mayumi-san," Motomu said. "By the way, the computer in the basement picked up some communications that you might wish to know about."

He handed her a print out, which Mayumi took and quickly skimmed. It didn't take her long to get the gist of it. "My, my, looks like the MAGI computers have alerted the civilian police to Batgirl's presence, and told them that she's a dangerous vigilante that must be arrested," she said. "There's even a list of fraudulent murder charges against me. Quite long, too. I'm almost flattered they see me as so deadly."

"I thought you weren't seen the other night," Motomu said.

"I wasn't," Mayumi replied, "but someone must have put two and two together and realized I was in town."

"Given that there's only one group that can order the MAGI around, I would say it doesn't take the world's greatest detective to figure out who that is," Motomu said.

"Indeed it doesn't," Mayumi replied. "Well, I never believed that the Commander of NERV would be a fool."

"You seem very undisturbed by this," Motomu commented.

"Well, it's not as if it's the first time my enemies have tried to turn the law against me," Mayumi said. "And in any case, I'm starting to believe that the direct approach won't work on NERV, at least not until I'm prepared to infiltrate their headquarters."

"I see," Motomu said.

"So, in the mean time, I guess Batgirl will just have to do what Batgirl does best," Mayumi said. "Fight crime."

"I assume you've been making preparations for more meaningful operations in Tokyo-3 as well?" Motomu asked.

"Of course," Mayumi replied. "I've been researching this city. You know what causes the divide between the rich and the poor areas, correct?"

Motomu nodded. "The rich areas were demolished and rebuilt when Hakone became Tokyo-3," he replied. "The depressed areas were left as they were, destitute and badly scarred by Second Impact."

"Precisely," Mayumi said. "The city government, which is effectively NERV, doesn't care about the poor areas. They have their police force protecting the rich parts, and the underground base in the Geofront is entirely safe from the angry have-nots in the city."

"Such callousness doesn't speak well of them," Motomu said disgustedly.

Mayumi nodded in agreement. "A few philanthropic organizations have attempted to breathe some life into the destitute areas, but a group of Yakuza, which controls the poor areas, always manages to ruin their efforts, usually through a combination of embezzlement and intimidation."

"I see," was all Motomu said. "So the efforts of one of your foundations would be useless…"

"So long as the city's organized crime is left to its usual devices," Mayumi finished. "Exactly."

"I take it you intend to venture out tonight, then?" Motomu asked.

"I wouldn't be distraught if you were to gas up the Batcycle for me," Mayumi replied with a small smile.

* * *

Author's Notes: Lots of stuff being set up in this chapter, not a whole terrible lot actually happening, I realize. Having a superwoman who can't fight the Angels is both great (because I don't have to try and figure out some way to make the battles fresh and new again), but also kind of a drag, because this chapter could have used the action.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Shinji being embarrassed by Misato like a normal teenager feels embarrassed by his parents. That was surprisingly fun to write.

If Gendo seems to have realized that Batgirl's in town too quickly, well, he's a smart guy. Plus, it's a lot easier for him to marshal a true challenge to Batgirl than it would be for the other girls, so I didn't want to delay starting that chain of events.

Ryousanki, on the issue of Mayumi's suit, in my head, it's more or less Terry McGinnis' batsuit in all but appearance, and Terry's suit was obviously a one-size-fits-all garment, seeing as how Terry had no trouble wearing it even though it had been designed for Bruce's much larger frame.

Zoro, I am honestly am not quite sure how Mayumi's relationship will Shinji will pan out in the end. I'd like to note, however, that it's not like Bats never got to be with someone in comics. In the Earth-Two continuity, he was happily married to a reformed Catwoman for about 20 years and had a kid with her before her past caught up with her and things went to hell.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. And thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

Ways to Avoid a Ticket

Batgirl was cruising through the streets of Tokyo-3 on the batcycle, totally minding her own business, when she happened to spot a flashing red light from behind her.

"Damn it," she grumbled, pulling over and bringing the batcycle to a stop.

She heard the cop opening the door of his car and getting out behind her. With a sigh, Mayumi partially unzipped the front of her batsuit.

"Good evening, officer, is there something wrong?" Batgirl asked in the smokiest tone she could muster.

"Do you have a license for that motorcycle, young lady?" the cop asked, completely ignoring the fact that the person he'd pulled over was Batgirl.

"Oh, I do, but it seems like I left it in my other suit," Batgirl replied as she pretended to search for her nonexistent license, and bringing as much attention as she could to her chest in the process.

The cop rolled his eyes. "Look, girl, you're not going to get out a ticket like that?"

"Why not?" Batgirl snapped indignantly, abandoning her seductive tone.

"You're fourteen," the cop said flatly.

It also didn't help Batgirl that he, like many of the cops in Tokyo-3, pulled Misato Katsuragi over for speeding and/or reckless driving an average of several times a week. And having gotten so many chances to stare at the Ops Director's cleavage as she "talked" her way out of her own tickets had raised his standards quite a bit.

Batgirl stared darkly at the cop for a few seconds, then she flung a small pellet down to the ground. It exploded into a cloud of gas which the cop inadvertently took a whiff of, causing him to instantly pass out. Leaving him where he was, Batgirl gunned her bike's engine and sped off.

"Jerk," she grumbled to herself as she rode into the night.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Three:** The Coming Storm

It was as quiet a night as Tokyo-3 ever saw. Nearly everyone who knew better than to be out at after the sun went down was safely inside their homes and in bed. Many of those who _made_ it unwise to be out after dark in certain parts of the city were far less loud and less blatant about their activities than usual. Word was already starting to spread that the bat was in town, and the more cautious criminals were looking over their shoulders.

So, it was a relatively quiet night, but not a silent one. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

"Die, bat-bitch!"

Moonlight flashed off a long knife blade as it cut through the air, aimed directly at Batgirl's throat.

The caped crusader responded by calmly intercepting the slash with one of her armored forearms. There was a dull clang as metal met metal, and Batgirl twisted her arm. The blade of her foe's knife became caught in the curved spikes that adorned her gauntlets, and the weapon was wrenched out of his hand and clattered to the ground.

Instinctively, the guy went to pick it up, bending forward as he reached down for it. Batgirl immediately took advantage of his stupid mistake, kneeing him hard in the stomach. The guy let out a gasp of pain and went staggering backwards as he doubled over, soon tumbling and landing on his rear.

The speed with which he got back to his feet almost impressed Batgirl, not that it stopped her from kicking him in the gut and sending him sprawling again.

Batgirl prepared herself for another attack, but this time the thug just groaned and remained where he was. "Okay, okay, I give. You win," he got out.

Not letting her guard down (if he tried to attack her after offering his surrender, he wouldn't be the first), the dark lady approached the man, grabbed two handfuls of his shirt, and roughly pulled him up so they were face to face.

"Are you yakuza?" she hissed.

"Y-yakuza? No!" the man replied.

Taking the petty criminal's word for what it was worth—nothing—Batgirl quickly pulled the sleeves of his shirt up, exposing his forearms. She revealed only unmarked skin.

"See? No tats! I ain't yakuza!" he said. Then he paused and added. "Does this mean you're going to let me go?"

Batgirl didn't even justify that question with a response. Instead, she removed a pair of handcuffs from her utility belt, slapping one of the metal loops onto the thug's wrist and the other onto a nearby metal railing.

"Hey!" the man exclaimed. "Hey! Let me go!"

He tried to reach out and grab his captor, but Batgirl easily evaded him and then stepped away from him, out of his reach.

"You can't just leave me here!" the man exclaimed.

"I'll be calling the cops later," Batgirl said bluntly. "I'd advise being as quiet and inconspicuous as possible. Attract the wrong kind of attention and someone might take advantage of your present position."

"What?! Damn it, bitch! Don't do this to me!" the man shouted, totally ignoring her advice.

Batgirl didn't respond to him as she walked off, her black-clad form melting into the shadows after only a few paces.

* * *

A few minutes later found the caped crusader riding the Batcycle through the dark streets of Tokyo-3, a motorized shadow in an area of the city full of people who hoped she'd just keep on going, if they even saw her passing by.

"So I take it you've still had no luck?" the familiar voice of Motomu came through the tiny radio in Batgirl's cowl.

"None at all," the dark lady grumbled in response. "So far I've interrupted four muggings, two drug deals, one attempted rape, and I still haven't found any of the city's yakuza members. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think that the city only has common, unorganized criminals."

"Didn't the research you performed prior to going out tonight indicate that you'd be having difficulties of this nature?" Motomu asked.

"Yes, but I wasn't expecting the organized crime ring here to be _this_ subtle," Batgirl replied. "It's very unlike yakuza to operate this way."

Japanese yakuza weren't like Italian mafia or Chinese triads. Back in Japan's feudal era, some of the "proto-yakuza" groups had actually been legitimate, government recognized organizations. Even in the present day, they still styled themselves as having some semblance of legitimacy, and owned buildings that were no more difficult to find than those of ordinary businesses. Yakuza members also often wore loud and colorful clothing and just generally made a point of bucking the Japanese cultural tradition of affecting a quiet and unassuming demeanor.

The yakuza in Tokyo-2 had learned that it was unwise to be so blatant when there was a bat in town, and they'd started to try to hide themselves more. Of course, by then, Batgirl had already learned too much about them for that to be effective.

Yet here in Tokyo-3…

"It's almost as though they knew you were coming," Motomu said.

The corners of Batgirl's lips quirked upwards beneath her cowl. "Flattering as that thought is, I doubt that's the reason the yakuza here are unusually hard to find," she said. "They're operating almost like a Western criminal organization."

"So what do you plan to do? Return to the cave and perform further research into the matter?" Motomu asked.

"No," Batgirl replied. "I haven't been on the streets here enough as it is. Besides, there's one place in any city like this where you can always find criminals of the organized variety."

Motomu sighed. "Of course. So I should not expect you home soon?"

"No," Batgirl answered. "Don't bother waiting up."

"Why do you always say that?" Motomu asked.

"Because I keep hoping that one day you'll actually do it and get some sleep before I get back," Batgirl replied.

* * *

Takeo scowled as he lit another cigarette. He'd been trying to quit lately, but that night he was currently too nervous to care and was unabashedly chain smoking.

"I thought that you were trying to stop."

He turned to see Kazuo, one of his partners in crime, looking at him curiously. Takeo sighed. "I just got a bad feeling tonight," he said.

"Bad feeling?" Kazuo echoed, the smirked. "Don't tell me that the rumors about the bat being in town have got you feelin' jumpy!"

Takeo scowled but didn't make any response. Instead, he just cast his gaze out at the harbor. The moon had disappeared behind a patch of clouds some time ago, so the water looked as black as obsidian in the dark night. He could see a mass of fog in the distance that was sluggishly making its way toward the shore. All in all, the sight didn't reassure him much.

"Are you serious?" Kazuo pressed. "Man, some two bit gang gets smacked around, makes up some story about the bat being behind it, and you're all on edge?"

"It's not _just_ because of the rumors about the bat," Takeo growled. "Everything just seems off lately. New management at the top of our organization. The bat. Never mind the Angels."

"Aw, c'mon, things aren't…"

"Then there's the more immediate concerns," Takeo continued. "Like what the _hell_ was the new boss thinking when he let the nut join?"

Kazuo smirked. The "nut" that Takeo was referring to was a new member, who had an unhealthy predisposition with violence of all kinds.

"Don't blame the new boss for that one," Kazuo said. "Only reason Haru's in is because he's one of the old lieutenant's nephews."

Takeo just grumbled wordlessly in response.

"Come on, let's go inside," Kazuo said, gesturing toward a nearby warehouse with a nod of his head. "They're almost done in there. Once everything's loaded up, we can go home."

Grunting in agreement, Takeo followed his colleague into the warehouse. The contents of a cargo ship that was ostensibly delivering grain to Tokyo-3 was being stored there. Takeo glanced at Haru, a.k.a. the nut, a.k.a. a powerful man's nephew. As always, he was wearing a large trench coat that was far too warm for post-Second Impact Japan.

Takeo wondered briefly if he wore it because he thought it made him look imposing or something, or if the guy was simply that nuts.

Smiling, and not noticing Takeo's grimly introspective expression, Kazuo went over to one of the wooden crates and opened it. Casually pushing the bags of rice on top aside, he reached down and withdrew a large, wicked looking pistol that looked like someone had taken a fairly standard sidearm and force fed it steroids.

"See that, my friend?" Kazuo asked, holding up the gun along with a package of ammunition. "Power and profit in my hot little hand."

Takeo just grunted. "Can we just get this done with and go home?"

Kazuo arched an eyebrow. "You really are jumpy tonight, aren't you?" he asked. "Relax, man, nothing's gonna…did you see something?"

Takeo was already looking about as his colleague said that, having seen a flicker of motion in his peripheral vision. He looked up, seeing a patch of pale moonlight that was streaming through the windows and hitting the far wall. There was a shadow in the midst of that light, one that was growing rapidly larger. And it was shaped like—

The sound of glass shattering filled the warehouse the exact same moment as Takeo figured out, too late, just what the shadow was.

"It's the bat!" Kazuo screamed, pointing at the black-clad figure who was now perched atop a tall stack of boxes.

The various yakuza members present rushed to draw pistols, but Batgirl was too quick for them. She raised her forearm, and small, bat-shaped disks shot out of some device in her suit. The projectiles soared through the air, each one invariably striking one of the warehouse's large overhead lights, soon plunging the inside of the large structure into shadows.

Seconds later, several of the yakuza fired shots at Batgirl—or, more accurately, where Batgirl had been a moment ago. The dark lady had already vacated her original perch, and all the yakuza were doing by firing at it was wasting bullets and keeping their eyes from adjusting to the dimness with their guns' muzzle flashes.

"Ugh!"

Everyone turned toward the source of the sound to see one of their number crumpling to the ground in a heap, a flicker of movement retreating behind a nearby crate as he did so.

Immediately, a few of the yakuza raised their weapons and fired into the crate, punching holes into it and sending splinters flying.

"Stop that, you morons!" Takeo shouted. "If there's ammunition in there, you could blow it up and kill us all!"

There were suddenly several more exclamations of pain and surprise, each in rapid succession. Takeo watched in horror as several more of the men present went down, all seemingly taken out by a shadow. The moonlight the streamed in through the windows provided just enough light to see a flicker of movement as the bat made a hasty retreat back into the darker shadows after each strike, but not enough to see her coming.

"Everyone, together!" Kazuo hissed.

The remaining few yakuza, who Takeo was distressed to realize consisted of only himself, Kazuo, Haru, and one other man, quickly clustered together. The four men formed a rough square with their backs pressed together, making certain that it would be impossible for Batgirl to sneak up on the group.

Takeo's heart hammered inside his chest, and he could feel sweat running down the back of his neck. There was a predator out there in the shadows, and they were the prey.

_I knew something bad would go down tonight,_ he thought as he forced himself not to attempt to run screaming from the warehouse.

"Y-You think she's gone?" the man whose name Takeo didn't know said in a whisper. "She can't sneak up on us while we're like this. Maybe she just left."

With the silence stretching out, Takeo was briefly tempted to hope that this was the case. That they'd outsmarted the bat, and that she had decided to fly home rather than take on four armed men she couldn't attack from behind.

His hopes were crushed as a round object roughly the size of a large marble rolled up to them. Before Takeo could react, the sphere emitted a soft hissing sound and dark vapors began to spew from the thing.

"Gas!" he exclaimed.

He, Kazuo, and Haru immediately scattered, getting away from the noxious fumes. The fourth man wasn't quite quick enough, however, and he collapsed to the hard warehouse floor.

With their little defensive formation broken, Batgirl again struck. Takeo was aware of a grunt of pain coming from Kazuo, signifying that yet one more of their number had fallen.

_To hell with this,_ he finally decided. _It's every man for himself now!_

Takeo _sprinted_ for the door, casting both caution and stealth to the wind and hoping that speed alone would do the job for him. He figured that he had about a 50/50 chance of getting away, maybe better if the bat went for the nut first.

_God, what'll I tell the boss about this?_ Takeo wondered as he drew closer to the door, nearly able to taste freedom.

The question abruptly became moot as he felt something hit him, and ropes began to rapidly wrap themselves around his form. He let out a shout of surprise and dismay as his legs were abruptly bound together, causing him to fall flat on his face. There was a meaty crack, and he could feel blood pouring down onto his upper lip. There was no doubt in his mind that he'd broken his nose.

Takeo briefly wondered how long the boss would leave him to stew in prison before bailing him out.

"You'll never take me alive, you bitch! _**NEVER!**_"

Scowling, Takeo managed to roll over so he was laying on his back rather than his stomach, allowing him to see what was going on. Haru was pinned between one of the large crates and what looked like a living shadow—the Batgirl, Takeo had no doubt.

She was shorter than he'd pictured her, but after what she'd just done, not the least bit less intimidating for it.

"This is foolish," Batgirl said in a gravelly, yet distinctly feminine voice. "Give up. You can't win."

"Maybe not," Haru said, affecting a dramatic tone that that almost made Takeo roll his eyes, even in the current situation, "but I can make sure that you _lose_."

With that, Haru threw open his trench coat, and Takeo felt the blood drain from his face. The man was wearing an explosive vest. He'd probably worn the thing all the time, Takeo realized, just in case something like this ever happened.

Three things happened in rapid succession, so close together that they almost seemed simultaneous.

First, Takeo screamed, "Don't do it, you crazy bastard! You'll blow the whole place and kill us all!"

Second, Batgirl fired a small grappling gun that was embedded in the forearm of her suit. The hook immediately found purchase on one of the metal beams by the warehouse roof, and the dark lady was swinging through the air toward the windows.

And finally, the nut pressed the trigger.

Takeo barely managed to get out a few curses at the already dead Haru before the explosion consumed him.

* * *

"Ugh!" Batgirl grunted as she made a painful, ungraceful landing on the concrete outside the now burning warehouse.

After a quick look about to make sure that no one else was around, she allowed herself a moment to slam her fist against the sidewalk in frustration. Her hunch that she could find yakuza at the docks had been correct, but she hadn't expected to encounter a man with a bomb strapped to himself. Most yakuza were _not_ suicide bombers.

Quickly retreating away from the ruined warehouse, Batgirl made her way into the shadows between two unharmed buildings. Climbing the fire escape, she quickly reached the roof. From there, she fired off her grappling gun and was soon swinging through the city.

_Perhaps I'm being too impatient,_ she mused as she soared through the dark night. _There are other ways of tracking down the yakuza here._

She could stake out the "border region" of the city, where the affluent part of the city sat right next to the destitute areas. Sooner or later, she would doubtlessly encounter yakuza muscle coming to offer the local shops "protection."

It was definitely an option, yet the idea annoyed her. When it came to the yakuza, the hard part was supposed to be manipulating things so the legal system would actually put them away, not finding and identifying them. She didn't want to expend so much time on what was supposed to be the easy part.

_There has to be another way,_ she thought.

Suddenly, Batgirl smiled beneath her cowl and altered her course slightly.

* * *

He was still cuffed to the railing where she had left him, obviously not having managed to escape. Yet, at the same time, he didn't look like he'd fallen prey to any opportunistic soul. Whether this was by dumb luck, fighting prowess, or having the good sense to try and avoid being noticed, not even the world's greatest detective could say.

"What are you doing back here?" the young thug asked sullenly as she approached. "Come to haul my ass to the cops yourself, or just to beat me up some more?"

"I'm here to offer you a deal," Batgirl said. "What's your name?"

The young man blinked in surprise. "Uh, Gorou Kim."

"Kim," Batgirl repeated. "You're Korean?"

"Half Korean," Gorou corrected her testily. "My mother was Japanese."

Batgirl nodded, knowing that would make little difference to the people who looked down on Koreans, and there were still quite a few in Japan. Living where he did, and with his heritage, the guy didn't have a whole lot going for him.

The yakuza often recruited young men just like him.

"Listen to me," Batgirl said, "I need the assistance of someone like you. Agree to help me, and I'll let you go."

"And if I say no?" Gorou demanded.

Batgirl shrugged. "I tell the police you're here, then find someone else with the right qualifications. Men like you aren't hard to find, especially not for women like me."

That answer caused the young thug's tough guy demeanor to crack slightly. "What would need me to do?" he asked.

"I want information on the yakuza," Batgirl answered. "You're going to infiltrate them for me."

Gorou's eyes widened. "Are you insane? They'll kill me if I help you bust them!"

"I just want some information about them," Batgirl replied. "I have resources. I can have you out of the city and starting a new life elsewhere before I start putting them away."

"You'd have to send me pretty far before I felt safe," Gorou muttered. "Like Hokkaido or something."

"I can do that," Batgirl said. "So, have we reached an agreement?"

Gorou paused. "Yeah, fine," he agreed finally.

"Good," Batgirl said, unlocking his handcuffs.

Gorou briefly considered lunging at her once he was free—she could see it in his eyes and in his posture. However, after being so soundly thrashed by the caped crusader earlier that night, he thought the better of it.

Batgirl handed him a small, black cell phone. "I'll call you with instructions soon," she said. "Don't lose that, and don't you _dare_ double cross me. You'll _wish_ you had an angry yakuza after you if you do."

"Yeah, yeah," Gorou said in a forced casual tone that was betrayed by his slightly quavering voice as he tucked the phone away into one of his pockets. "So, does the bat plan have unlimited minutes or...?" he trailed off as he looked up.

Batgirl was nowhere to be found.

* * *

"Are you sure that was wise, Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked some time later. "Employing the services of some ruffian you had just apprehended…"

"It'll be fine," Mayumi replied. "There's no possible way that phone can be traced back to Mayumi Yamagishi."

Mayumi had recently returned, and the two of them were down in the Batcave. The raven-haired girl sat on a stool, clad only in a jogging bra and shorts while Motomu went about the task of bandaging her side; Mayumi had exposed a huge black and purple bruise when she'd removed her batsuit earlier, doubtlessly the result of landing badly as she'd escaped the exploding warehouse.

She'd had worse, but it was easier to let Motomu patch her up than to endure him fretting constantly over her.

"And I suppose if the young man simply decides to flee the city, you'll have lost nothing in the bargain, aside from a cell phone," Motomu observed.

"And the time it'll take me to hunt him down, though that wouldn't take long," Mayumi added. "He won't run, though. I put a good scare into him, and in any case, he doesn't have the resources to pick up stakes and flee the city."

"But how do you intend for him to join the yakuza if even you couldn't find them?" Motomu asked.

"Simple, they're going to find _him_," Mayumi replied with a small grin.

"I beg your pardon?" the butler asked, clearly confused.

"All in good time, Motomu," Mayumi replied. "All in good time. Now, are you finished yet? I'm sure you'd agree that it would be healthy for me to catch at least a little sleep before I have to get up for school tomorrow."

Motomu sighed but couldn't quite suppress the small, rueful smile that crept onto his face. "Nearly done, Mayumi-san."

* * *

The next day found Mayumi at school, sitting across from Shinji as they ate lunch at one of the picnic tables outside in the school yard. Kensuke sat next to Mayumi, and Toji was next to Shinji. The jock and the otaku were powering the conversation, which was pretty much situation normal.

"So, did you hear about the warehouse down by the docks that exploded the other night?" Kensuke asked.

"Saw something about it in my dad's paper this morning," Toji replied between bites of his lunch. "Why?"

"There are all kinds of crazy rumors about it flying around," Kensuke said, obviously bursting with juicy gossip.

"Uh-huh," Toji responded, clearly not that interested.

Kensuke either didn't notice or didn't care that his friend wasn't that into his news. "They say that the place was being used by the yakuza, and that the reason it went up like that was because they were storing explosives there," the otaku said in a conspiratorial tone.

"What would the yakuza want a warehouse full of explosives for?" Toji asked with a frown.

"I don't know, I'm not yakuza!" Kensuke snapped, clearly annoyed at having Toji ruin his story with unimportant things like logic.

Shinji and Mayumi exchanged a glance, both of them smirking slightly at Kensuke's antics, then quickly averted their gazes back at the table before their expressions could be noticed.

"Okay, fine, I'm sure the yakuza has a need for a whole bunch of bombs," Toji said, rolling his eyes.

Much like with Toji's disinterest, if Kensuke noticed his friend's sarcasm, he pretended not to. "So anyway, that's not even the best part!"

"What else is there?" Shinji asked, thinking that a yakuza owned warehouse exploding was pretty dramatic all on its lonesome.

"Rumor has it that the one was set off the explosion…" Kensuke paused for dramatic effect, "was the Batgirl!"

Unnoticed by all, Mayumi arched an eyebrow slightly, wondering if someone had seen her inglorious exit from the exploding building, or if it was just people jumping to conclusions which happened to be almost correct.

She hoped it was the latter; she was definitely slipping if someone had seen her and she'd hadn't noticed them.

"Is the Batgirl even real?" Toji asked.

"Sure she is," Kensuke replied. "A guy said he saw her escaping the place as it blew. Then she flew away."

_Apparently not losing my touch after all,_ Mayumi thought with some relief.

"She flew away?" Toji asked. "Since when could Batgirl fly?"

"She has a cape, doesn't she?" Kensuke asked defensively.

Shinji and Mayumi shared another amused look.

"Yeah, sure, Ken," Toji said around a mouthful of food.

"Laugh all you want, man, but I'm telling you, Batgirl is in town, and she's blowing crap up," Kensuke said.

"Uh-huh," was Toji's response. "Hey, assuming that Batgirl's even real, do you think she's hot?"

Shinji cleared his throat before Kensuke could make a response, getting the attention of the two other boys. They frowned quizzically at him for a moment before they realized, seemingly in unison, why he'd interrupted them, their gazes snapping over to Mayumi.

The bespectacled girl was so quiet and unobtrusive that the Toji and Kensuke sometimes forgot she was there and that they weren't in the company of only other guys.

Needless to say, the addition of Mayumi made the group dynamic rather odd at times, but Toji and Kensuke put up with the quiet, nerdy girl for Shinji's sake.

Kensuke coughed nervously. "Uh, sorry 'bout that."

"It's all right," Mayumi said softly, but she didn't look him in the eyes, hiding behind her long hair instead.

"So," Kensuke said, awkwardly trying to restart the conversation. "Uh…"

He was saved from the need to say anything further as Shinji's cell phone began to ring. The Third Child's eyes widened as he took it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID window.

"Angel?" Mayumi asked.

"Looks like it," Shinji said grimly just before he answered the phone call.

* * *

About a half an hour later, Mayumi found herself down in one of the shelters near the school. Toji and Kensuke had accompanied her down, but she had quickly given them the slip not long after everyone began to get settled in. She was now leaning against a wall, her arms crossed and her eyes directed at the floor.

"So how did you get here?" she asked abruptly, not looking up.

"Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked as he approached her.

Mayumi looked up. "The mansion and the school are in different evacuation areas. You should be in a different bunker."

"I must have lost my way," Motomu replied with a small smile.

"Really? You must have _seriously_ gotten lost, then," Mayumi replied with a little smirk, not believing him for a moment. "Perhaps I should get you a compass for your next birthday."

"I have no difficulty determining which way is north, Mayumi-san, but that doesn't ease the task of navigating Tokyo-3," Motomu said. "One can only wonder what the people who planned this city were thinking. Tea?"

He held up a thermos that was presumably filled with green tea. Mayumi wondered when Motomu had found the time to make the hot drink and then store, though she was not very surprised that he had. The butler's efficiency had always been able to leave even her scratching her head at times, not that she'd ever let him know that.

"Sure," she said.

Motomu removed the cap of the thermos, which doubled as a cup, and poured steaming hot tea into it. Mayumi accepted it with a soft word of thanks and began to sip. The drink did little to calm her nerves.

"I hate this," she said after several minutes of silence between them.

Motomu didn't even have to ask her what she was talking about. "Yes, well, unfortunately, against the destroyers who come now, even one such as you is powerless, Mayumi-san."

"Mm," Mayumi grunted softly in reply.

"If it makes you feel better, Mayumi-san, I'm sure everything's well in hand," Motomu said.

* * *

"Well, what do you think about _that_, Third Child?" Asuka asked smugly, turning her gaze away from the bisected form of the Seventh Angel to look at his EVA, which somehow looked about as stunned as her 'rival' currently felt. "A fight should be clean and elegant, without waste."

Neither of the pilots noticed right away when the apparently dead Angel's form began to shudder.

* * *

Not much later, a dull sort of boom could be heard within the shelter that Mayumi and Motomu currently waited within. This was accompanied by a subtle but easily detectible rumbling of the ground beneath their feet.

"My word," Motomu said, looking about as surprised and disquieted by the strange occurrence as just about everyone else in the bunker. "What was that?"

"An N2 mine, or an equally powerful explosion," Mayumi said grimly. "Somehow, I don't think the fight went the way NERV planned it."

A few hours later, everyone was let out of the shelters, and Mayumi was able to learn just how right she'd been.

NERV wasn't keeping much about the recent battle a secret; there would be no point, since the scorched but intact forms of the twin Angels were standing ankle deep in the ocean, plainly visible from the shore.

The basic story was simple. The EVA's had lost, and the JSSDF had used an N2 mine on the Angels, not killing them, but injuring them badly enough that it would take them days to recover and renew their attack. This seemed like a perfect window of opportunity for NERV to kill the Angel, but apparently, the Evangelions were too badly damaged for them to strike while their enemies were defenseless. By the time NERV could get them repaired, the Angels would have healed.

Down in the Batcave, Mayumi contemplated all of this as she dialed the number to Shinji's cell phone. The call immediately went to voice mail.

"Hello," a very automated sounding voice answered, "you've reached the phone of—Shinji Ikari—who is unavailable at this time. If you wish to leave a message, please wait for the tone."

"Hello, Shinji, it's Mayumi," she began after the little beeping noise had sounded. "I heard that the battle didn't go too well, and, um, I guess I just wanted to call and make sure you were all right. But I guess you're busy with…NERV stuff. I'll call back later…or you could call me when you get this. Whichever. Um, bye."

"Your skill at sounding awkward and shy on command knows no bounds, Mayumi-san," Motomu commented dryly.

"It's not entirely feigned," Mayumi replied as she placed her phone back in her pocket. "I hate talking to machines."

"Really? Hard to tell considering how much time you spend down here with that computer," Motomu said.

"Well, machines are better than butlers," Mayumi replied with a small smirk.

Motomu snorted.

"So, what brought you down here?" Mayumi asked. "More than just to leave a comment on my acting skills, I'd guess."

"There's been some news I thought you'd be interested in," Motomu said, handing her a business news publication.

Mayumi didn't have to look past the first page to see what Motomu was talking about. Hokkaido Heavy Industries had declared bankruptcy that morning.

"Finally," Mayumi said. "Make sure to remind Lucius that I want to buy the company."

"Already done, Mayumi-san," Motomu said.

"Knew there was a reason I kept you around, besides the legal niceties of having a guardian, of course," Mayumi said.

"You're too kind, Mayumi-san," Motomu noted dryly. "May I ask what it is you're up to?"

"I need to get in touch with my soon-to-be-informant," Mayumi replied.

"Please try and avoid getting the boy injured," Motomu said tiredly.

"That boy probably would have killed me if given half a chance," Mayumi replied. "But don't worry, he'll be fine. In fact, he's going to be very popular tonight."

* * *

Several hours later, Gorou Kim walked into one of the many bars located within the bad part of Tokyo-3. It wasn't a fancy place by anyone's estimate; there was one television in the whole establishment, and the bar and table always seemed to be damp. Yet that television actually _worked_ (sometimes), and it was possible to get a drink a little more complex than a bottle of beer (though few of the patrons ever ordered anything else).

Most importantly, everyone knew, though no one could prove, that a number of low- and mid-level yakuza members often spent time there.

Under normal circumstances, the place was too expensive a watering hole for Gorou, but things were different that evening. That evening, he walked over to the bar, sat down, and smacked the countertop, demanding the bartender's attention.

"What is it?" was the man's unfriendly greeting.

Smirking, Gorou said, "I'd like a round for myself, and…" he looked about, making a show of surveying the other patrons, "one for every lady in this place."

He slapped a wad of bills down onto the bar then, visibly shocking the bartender. "Uh, right away," the man said, quickly snatching the wad of cash and depositing it behind the counter before he began getting the drinks.

A man that Gorou estimated to be in his thirties made his way over to the half-Korean man and sat down on the stool next to his. He was one of the few people in the bar who didn't have a beer. Instead, he held a glass containing a clear liquid that was almost certainly vodka. As he set it down on the bar, Gorou was able to catch just a quick flash of a dragon tattoo peeking out from his sleeve.

_Bingo,_ Gorou thought.

"So," the man said, "what's the occasion?"

"There's two things I'm celebrating," Gorou said. "The first is that I just finished a very lucrative job. The second is that I found out I'm even better than I thought I was."

The man smiled. "What do you mean by that?"

Smirking, Gorou reached into his pocket, then abruptly buried the pointed end of a piece of black metal into a thick coaster made of cork. The other man's eyes widened as he got a good look at it.

It was shaped like a bat.

"Had a run-in with the bat and lived to tell the tale," Gorou bragged.

"Tell me about it," the man said. "I'd love to hear that tale."

* * *

Hikari looked appalled. That was the only way to describe the class representative's expression. Appalled.

Though, immediately after coming to that conclusion, Mayumi decided that the freckled girl could also accurately be described as mortified. Aida and Suzuhara didn't look that much better.

As she drew nearer, Mayumi saw the reason for all the horrified expressions. Shinji and Asuka were standing in the doorway of the apartment they shared with Katsuragi, and they were wearing matching outfits. And those matching outfits consisted of black, form-fitting jumpsuits, along with half-tees that had musical note designs on them.

Mayumi came to a dead stop, wondering what ungodly force of nature had brought about _this_ situation.

Then her gaze turned to Katsuragi, who had invited Mayumi to the apartment, along with Rei.

"Hello, everyone!" Misato waved cheerfully at the horrified looking group.

"Uh, could you please explain what's going on here?" Suzuhara asked Katsuragi.

"Sure," Misato said. "Come on in, everybody. Shinji, Asuka, you two should probably get back to work."

The two matching pilots groaned, almost in perfect unison, but they obediently slipped back inside the apartment while Misato herded the other teenagers inside.

All the furniture in the apartment's living room had either been moved up against the walls or taken elsewhere, in order to make room for some sort of bizarre contraption that looked like a pair of twister mats fused with a demented carnival game. As they watched, Shinji and Asuka each reluctantly donned a pair of headphones, got on all fours on the mats, and then began to bounce around on the things as the pads lit up, presumably in time with whatever music they were listening to.

Mayumi immediately recognized it as a form of coordination training, although she'd never seen such done quite like this before.

"Have a seat, guys," Katsuragi said, gesturing toward a table from which the living room could clearly be seen.

They did as they were told, and Katsuragi retrieved several cans of juice from her refrigerator, as well as a beer for herself. As she handed out the drinks, the Operations Director explained the situation.

"As you probably know, the last battle didn't go too well," she said. "This Angel has the ability to split into two smaller Angels that can fight with perfect coordination. The eggheads at NERV think they may even share the same mind. So we've reached the conclusion that only a perfectly coordinated attack can destroy them."

This plan struck Mayumi as more than a little needlessly elaborate, but she didn't make a comment to that effect. If only because it would've been out of character for her shy schoolgirl persona.

"So how exactly is all this supposed to help?" Kensuke asked.

Mayumi listened with only half an ear as Misato explained the specifics of the plan and the bizarre training regimen, the greater part of her attention focused on the two EVA pilots who were frantically bouncing around on the two dance mats. They were obviously still a long way away from perfecting their routine, and Asuka became visibly more frustrated every time the buzzer went off, signifying that one or both of them had made a mistake. They both also looked painfully embarrassed.

The raven-haired girl's gaze flicked over to Katsuragi, and she caught the woman taking a quick glance at her two charges. Instantly, Mayumi knew that the Ops Director was just as aware of Shinji and Asuka's discomfort as she was. She'd called Mayumi and Rei, and had then invited everyone inside, in an attempt to make the two EVA pilots try harder.

Mayumi's estimation of Katsuragi's capacity for deviousness went up a notch. The woman had previously struck her as…well, not guileless; it had been obvious she hadn't invited Mayumi to dinner a while back simply for the heck of it, or even just as a way of apologizing for putting her foot in her mouth at the JA demonstration. However, that whole affair had been so unsubtle that Mayumi hadn't had reason to believe that Katsuragi possessed any real skill when it came to manipulating people. Clearly, Mayumi had been wrong.

Part of her was actually impressed at seeing this side of the Captain, but the bespectacled girl found, to her surprise, that the larger part was annoyed at it, specifically at how Katsuragi was manipulating _Shinji._

Precisely _why_ she felt this way, Mayumi was sure she no idea. She also realized that it made her quite the hypocrite. Yet somehow, knowing that did nothing to suppress the feeling.

"Maybe you should let them take a break?" Mayumi 'blurted' out, interrupting Misato's explanation of the plan's finer details.

"Huh?" the purple haired woman blinked, surprised that Mayumi had spoken up so abruptly.

Mayumi looked away. "Well, I know _I'd_ be embarrassed if I was doing something like that in front of my friends," she said, dragging out Misato's reason for having others here into the light.

The purple haired woman's brow twitched, though it was barely perceptible. It would've been impossible to notice without paying close attention to Misato, which, of course, Mayumi was.

"I guess you're right," she conceded, turning to the dancing pilots. "Take five, guys!"

Obviously relieved, the two pilots quickly vacated the mats and walked together toward the refrigerator, where they both grabbed a can of juice. Mayumi resisted the urge to arch an eyebrow as the two of them, both looking exhausted, walked over to the table, then sat down, opened their cans, and took a long drink in perfect unison.

Mayumi wasn't the only one who noticed that the two pilots were in perfect sync with each other once they were _off_ that dance mat.

"So…why is that you guys suck at this when it counts?" Toji asked.

The Second Child's wrath in response to that comment was truly terrible to behold.

* * *

Some time later, after Toji and Kensuke had made a tactical retreat, Rei had left, and Asuka had calmed down, Shinji and Mayumi stood on the veranda outside the apartment together, watching the sun set. After the incident between Asuka and the two "stooges" Misato had reluctantly been convinced to extend the pilots' break and allow them a brief time with their friends.

"So…did you get my message?" Mayumi asked.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, sorry about not calling you back. With all the synchronization training…"

"It's all right," Mayumi said quickly, then in a softer voice added, "I'm just glad that you weren't hurt in that last battle."

Shinji reddened and looked at the setting sun like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. "Thanks," he said softly.

There was a long, silent moment before Mayumi finally spoke up again. "Do you think you'll be able to do it? Beat the Angel, I mean?"

"I don't know," Shinji confessed quietly, now unable to meet the bespectacled girl's eyes for completely different reasons.

"I think you and Asuka will be able to do it," Mayumi said, then, after a rare burst of genuine indecision, gently placed her hand over his.

"Th-thanks," Shinji said, finally turning to face her and forcing a small smile.

Another brief silence followed, this one more comfortable than those that had preceded it. Then Mayumi suddenly appeared to lose her nerve, and she backed away from Shinji.

"I should probably let you get back to your training," Mayumi said. "Will I see you after all this is over?"

"Of course," Shinji said, then, after a brief moment of consideration, added, "assuming we win."

"Right," Mayumi said with a small smile. "I'll see you in a few days, Shinji."

"See you," Shinji said.

With that, Mayumi got up, and, after making a quick good-bye to Katsuragi, left the apartment, feeling unusually agitated and confused. Just before she'd placed her hand on top of Shinji's…well, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so nervous and unsure of herself. It had to have been years ago, in the days long before she'd become the caped crusader.

Abruptly deciding that she needed to be Batgirl as soon as possible, Mayumi withdrew her cell phone from her pocket as she left the apartment building, dialing the number of her informant.

"Hello?" Gorou answered after the second ring.

"It's me," Mayumi replied in her Batgirl voice. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Yeah," Gorou said. "Found out who runs the yakuza in this town. It's actually a gaijin."  
Mayumi frowned. "A gaijin? Are you sure?"

Yakuza groups, like their Western counterparts, tended to be family-run organizations, with leadership usually passing from father to son over the generations. For a foreigner to seize control of a yakuza group was unheard of.

"Surprised me, too, but yeah, I'm sure," Gorou replied.

"What's his name?" Mayumi asked.

Gorou hesitated, causing the raven-haired girl to scowl. "Tell me," she demanded.

"Look," Gorou said, "to find out as much as I did, I had to tell them I wanted to join. The _last_ thing I want is for them to find out I'm even speaking to you, or to get caught between them and you once you start doing your…bat-thing on them."

"I'm not going to screw you, Kim," Mayumi replied. "I said I'd get you out of the city and far away, and I will. I'm not playing games with you, Kim, so don't treat the information I want as a poker chip. Trust me, you'll regret it if you do." She added in a particularly dark tone.

"All right, all right," the man said, trying and failing to keep the fear out of his voice. "The leader of the yakuza in Tokyo-3 is a man named Cobblepot."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a very large and dimly lit room within the NERV pyramid, a rather unusual interview was being conducted.

"I'm told that you're one of the best assassins in all of Asia, and perhaps one of the greatest assassin in Japan," Gendo spoke.

"I am the greatest assassin in the world," the man standing on the other side of the Commander's desk said.

Ikari released a quiet grunt that might have been interpreted as a small, derisive laugh. Considering that the man who stood before him had left a pair of NERV security guards laying on the floor, bleeding, and begging for morphine for the offense of trying to claim his katana before he entered the base, this was a rather bold thing for the Commander to do.

"You seem qualified enough," was Gendo's measured response.

"For what?" the man asked. "What job do you have for me?"

"I want you to kill Batgirl," Gendo answered plainly.

"She will be difficult prey to find," the assassin said. "It will cost you."

"Name your price," Gendo said.

The assassin did, and the Commander allowed a faint grimace to pass over his features. "Done," he said. "You'll be paid when you complete the assignment."

"No," the assassin said. "Half now, half later."

"Very well," Gendo said.

Nodding, the assassin turned and began to head out of the huge office.

"Do not disappoint me, Kyodai Ken," Gendo called after him.

The ninja turned, smirked slightly, and then departed, on the hunt.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Okay, first of all, I suspect a few of you may be going, "Well, I know who Cobblepot is, but who the hell is this Kyodai Ken guy?"

Well, Kyodai Ken was a Batman villain who, as far as I know, was exclusive to BTAS. He showed up in two episodes, which were titled, if I remember right _Day of the Samurai_ and _Night of the Ninja_. I picked him despite his relative obscurity because I figured that Gendo would most likely stay local when he looks for assassins, at least at the beginning. That and he is a pretty good villain.

Anyway, I debated over whether I was having Mayumi act too impetuously here, shunning the stakeouts and such in favor of getting into a fight at the docks. Ultimately, I decided that stakeouts are boring by nature, and that, Batgirl or not, Mayumi is still a teenager and not that experienced a hero to boot.

By the way, Kensuke's little misconception about Batgirl actually came from me listening to the commentary for the episode _World's Finest_ of STAS. The actual animation was done by a Japanese company, and when they first did it, they had Batman flying like Superman at one point. Of course, Bruce Timm and co. had to tell them to fix it, and then asked the Japanese animators why they believed Batman could fly. The answer? He has a cape.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. And happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans out there.

* * *

Omake

Secret Agent Bird (I've used that omake title before, haven't I?)

Deep inside the Batcave, an unusual scene was unfolding.

"First off, I want to say how glad I am that you're volunteering for this mission," Mayumi told her visitor. "…and how impressed I was that you managed to figure out I was Batgirl and somehow make your way from your apartment to here."

"Wark!" Pen-Pen replied.

"Yes, well, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?" Mayumi asked. "While it's true that you're…uniquely qualified to infiltrate the operation of Tokyo-3 yakuza, I need to make sure that you understand how dangerous this will be."

"Wark! Wark! Wark!"

"I see," Mayumi replied, nodding with approval. "I'm glad to hear that. And don't worry, you'll be richly rewarded for your help. Motomu?"

The butler silently opened up a refrigerator, revealing that it was packed to capacity with tuna, salmon, flounder, and caviar. Pen-Pen flapped his wings and trilled excitedly.

"Glad to see you're motivated," Mayumi replied. "Now, let's get you equipped…"

"Wark?"

"Yes, you're going to need this helmet and rocket pack to blend in," Mayumi said, holding up the items in question.

"Wark?"

"Why? Because I have reason to believe that this is the Cobblepot from the _movie_," Mayumi replied matter-of-factly.

(A/N: If you don't get this, you need to Google "Oswald Cobblepot", watch the Batman movies directed by Tim Burton, or both. Also, I'll fess up right now and confess I basically stole this joke from _Tiny Titans_.)


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Four: **Night of the Ninja

The Iceberg Lounge was one of the most popular nightclubs in Tokyo-3, attracting some of the most powerful people in the city. Businessmen, government officials, and mid-level NERV officers frequented the place regularly. The only people to not make an appearance were the upper echelons of the special agency, and so far as the various clubs and bars in the city were aware, those people never went out anywhere.

This evening, a long black limousine pulled up to the front doors of the bustling club, getting a few looks of mild curiosity from the other patrons. Expensive cars were not a strange sight in this part of the city, but even the people who went to the Iceberg Lounge rarely arrived in such a posh ride.

The chauffer got out of the limo and quickly ran to the back to open the door for his passengers. Eyebrows went up as two people emerged.

One was a bald man who looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties. He was svelte and trim, and the thin, gray-and-black mustache on his lip gave him a sophisticated, dapper air. His eyes were more rounded than those of the average Japanese man, making several people suspect that he was partly of Western descent. Possibly British, a few speculated.

It was unusual that a man who was unknown to all the other patrons would arrive at the Iceberg with such fanfare, but the second passenger in the limousine really caused eyebrows to go up.

She was a girl of about fourteen or fifteen with green eyes and brown hair that was just a shade too dark to be called auburn. Wearing an expensive but modest blue and white dress, she had none of the appearance of the young, wild rich girl who was inebriated more often than not. However, there was a bored expression on her face, as if she had been brought to the Iceberg Lounge against her protestations.

Though alcohol was served at the Iceberg Lounge, entry to the club wasn't officially forbidden to minors. However, the patrons all understood that it really wasn't the type of place where one should take a child.

The two newcomers stepped out of the limo without giving the chauffer a second glance and strode toward the door. The bouncer who waited there asked them their names.

It was a formality. Anyone wealthy enough to pull up in a limousine would be welcome at the Iceberg Lounge, but it was the type of place where formality was always observed.

"I am Hiroki Nakagowa, formerly an executive of Hokkaido Heavy Industries," he added unnecessarily. "This is my granddaughter Kasumi."

The puzzled frowns on a few people's faces smoothed out. Apparently, this was a man who had retired from the company just before the disastrous Jet Alone demonstration had ruined it. He was likely still celebrating his good fortune.

"Go right in, sir, miss," the bouncer told the two of them. "Someone will show you to one of our VIP tables."

They went inside, and sure enough, a very attractive waitress who'd packed her figure into a revealing black dress that was a size or two too small greeted them, a bright smile plastered onto her face.

"Welcome to the Iceberg Lounge," she said. "Please, follow me."

Kasumi looked around the place as they were led to one of the VIP tables on the upper level. The owner of the place had certainly spared no expense on ensuring that the décor matched the name of the establishment. Great pillars of glass that had been shaped to look like columns of ice reached up to the ceiling. In numerous places there were displays that were made to look like snow, and everything was either a cool blue or pure white.

In short order, they reached the VIP area, which was on a second floor balcony overlooking the first floor. The waitress took their drink orders—a gin and tonic for Hiroki and a soda for Kasumi—and then promptly left.

Once she was gone, Kasumi surreptitiously attached a small listening device to the bottom of the table.

"This is a very fine place," Hiroki commented to his young charge. "I do believe that we'll have to come back."

"Kasumi" resisted the urge to smile, keeping up the facade of the bored teenager.

"Oh, look, there's the proprietor," she said, gesturing with a nod of her head.

Hiroki looked, spotting a short man who was so squat that he appeared to waddle as he walked. His nose was too long, and his ugly, fleshy face made the older man think of Winston Churchill for some reason. The cigarette in the long holder that the man held between two gloved fingers and the monocle that was securely perched in front of his right eye somehow only served to strengthen the resemblance.

"My, he's…quite the character," Hiroki observed.

"Indeed," Kasumi replied in a quiet voice. "I've heard he's been accused of all manner of things, but somehow the accusations never stick."

The waitress brought their drinks, and after asking them if they wanted anything else, quickly left again. The two of them sat there for a while and sipped at their beverages, chatting about meaningless things. Then Hiroki got up, telling his charge that he wouldn't be gone long, and went off to mingle with the wealthy and powerful people to be found in the VIP lounge.

Kasumi, for her part, remained at the table, stirring her drink with the little red straw it had come with and looking like the quintessential bored teenage girl.

Of course, appearances could be deceiving, and usually were when she was concerned. While she kept up her uninterested appearance, her eyes were actually darting about, taking note of the club's plainclothes security personnel, which she picked out from the crowd with ease.

At least half of them were watching Hiroki, which wasn't too much of a surprise. They likely suspected that he was an undercover detective or something, who was trying to be so ostentatious that no one would even consider the possibility he was actually an officer of the law.

However, no one was watching _her._ If the new guy was a cop, security reasoned, then the girl he'd brought with him was merely a living prop. Just something to make it seem less likely that he was trying to catch the other patrons conducting illegal business over the Iceberg Lounge's impeccable cocktails.

Finally abandoning her still mostly full soda, Kasumi got up from the table and wandered off. She flitted about the VIP area for a brief time, planting more of her listening devices about whenever she was certain that no one was looking at her. After a while, she drifted down to the lower floor, and then onto the dance floor. She danced for a few minutes, to keep up appearances, until some rich, drunk eighteen-year-old started hitting on her.

Given a sufficient excuse to leave, Kasumi departed from the dance floor and went looking for the bathroom. However, she became "lost" on the way, wandering into an area of the club that was clearly meant for employees only.

She knew she wasn't likely to find anything _too_ important on this visit. Not while she was in disguise, without her equipment, and so many people were around. However, her interest became piqued as she realized that she was going down.

_What is this?_ She thought to herself as the area she was in just kept going on, even after she was sure that she was no longer directly beneath the building. _A tunnel?_

She took a few seconds to figure out which direction the supposed tunnel went, and where in the city it led. She soon realized that, assuming it was straight, the tunnel would head directly to the depressed area of the city.

_Makes sense,_ she thought. _If Cobblepot wanted to keep a legitimate front in the bad part of the city, too, this way he could go there without being seen._

She was considering whether or not she should take the risk of venturing down the tunnel to see where exactly it led when she heard a footstep behind her.

Under more "normal" circumstances, she would have quickly retreated to a dark alcove and made herself as small as possible. However, that just wouldn't work at the moment; the clothing she was wearing was too brightly colored for her to even consider it. That left her with only one option.

Spinning on her heel, Kasumi gave the uniformed security guard a tentative but hopeful smile. "Hello," she greeted him. "I'm glad you're here. I got lost on my way to the restroom."

"You wandered all the way down here looking for the can?" the man asked incredulously, approaching her with long, purposeful strides.

"Why yesh… yes. This place is so _big!_" she giggled, deliberately adding a small slur to her voice and cursing herself for not doing so from the start.

Her little story would sound a lot more plausible if she could convince the guy that she'd gotten into the cocktails somehow and was more than a little tipsy.

Unfortunately, the guy simply didn't buy it. Either that, or he was too glad of the chance to push around someone younger and smaller than himself. Judging by the malice gleaming in his eyes, she guessed it was the latter.

"You're coming with me," the big man said, reaching out for her.

She reacted instantly, grabbing hold of his wrist and flipping him to the ground. The security guard released a groan of surprise and pain. Kasumi didn't give him the chance to recover; she pounced, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing down hard on his carotid artery, cutting off the flow of blood and depriving his brain of oxygen.

The man released an angered cry and thrashed wildly for a few seconds, trying to get the teenage girl off of himself. He might have stood a chance of succeeding if he hadn't panicked, but as it was, his struggles soon weakened, and then ceased entirely.

Kasumi released her hold on him and then got up. It was time to go, she decided, before he woke up or someone went looking for him and discovered his unconscious form.

Heading back to the area where customers were actually permitted to be as soon as possible, Kasumi blended effortlessly back into the crowd. However, this time she wasn't going to start dancing in order to try and fit in. This time she headed straight back up to the VIP area.

"Grandfather," she said, quickly locating Hiroki. "This place is so _boring_! There's no one here my age! Can't we go now?" she whined, heaving a dramatic sigh.

She was not above throwing a full-fledged (if entirely fake) temper tantrum if that was what required. Fortunately, her "grandfather" was perceptive enough to make that unnecessary.

Hiroki looked apologetically at the businessman he'd been speaking with. "I did promise I'd show my granddaughter a good time tonight."

"Of course," the man replied jovially, sounding a little tipsy. "Family comes first, after all."

Hiroki smiled gratefully and bid the man farewell. Minutes later, he and Kasumi were leaving the Iceberg Lounge. They escaped from the scene without being challenged.

* * *

"Well, that was something of a wash," Hiroki commented as the two of them trotted up the long walkway to Yamagishi Manor's front door.

"Not at all," Kasumi replied. "I expect those listening devices I planted will send me some very interesting information before they're found. And everything I learned tonight only seems to confirm the belief that Cobblepot is a Yakuza leader."

"I suppose," Hiroki said noncommittally.

The two of them finally reached the front door. Hiroki produced a key from his pocket and unlocked it, allowing them entry. They walked inside and then pulled the door shut after them.

Then they pulled off their own faces, or so it would have appeared to an observer. What they really removed were a pair of masks, which stretched rather grotesquely before finally coming off, and revealing Hiroki and Kasumi for who they really were, namely Motomu and Mayumi.

"Well, I'm going to the cave," Mayumi announced. "I have some research to do, and there should be enough time for me to be on the streets for a couple of hours."

Motomu sighed. "Yes, Mayumi-san," he said. "I'm going to pack your bag for your trip to Okinawa. Is there anything particular you wish for me to include?"

Mayumi frowned. "Okinawa?"

"Don't you recall?" Motomu asked, surprised. "Your class is going on a trip to Okinawa."

"Oh, yes," Mayumi said. "Don't bother packing. I'm not going."

"Why ever not?" Motomu asked.

"The pilots won't be going," Mayumi answered simply. "Besides, the whole thing would just be a waste of time, anyway."

Motomu sighed. "Yes, Mayumi-san," he said as she disappeared into the secret passage that led to the Batcave.

* * *

Nobu was pissed off as he climbed the stairs of a ratty apartment building that morning. This wasn't exactly a unique state of affairs; the big Yakuza enforcer was usually pissed off about something or other. Some said that this was why he so good at his role in the organization. However, that morning, he was even more pissed off than usual, at even more things than usual.

He was pissed off because the elevator in the rat-infested apartment where the stupid kid lived was broken, forcing him to take the stairs. He was pissed off that the kid had failed to show up for the start of his initiation like he was supposed to, thus making it necessary for someone to go and fetch him. He was pissed off that one of the lieutenants thought the snot-nosed brat was important enough to send _him_ to get the kid. Just because the damn kid had told some stupid story about having a run-in with the Bat that he'd supposedly emerged from smelling like a rose…

And come to think of it, Nobu was pissed off at the Bat, too. He had lost friends when that warehouse by the docks had exploded, and their crazy gaijin boss was still throwing a shit fit after having discovered those bugs in his club. The man was convinced for some reason that Batgirl had planted them.

Finally, he reached the kid's door. Pounding on it with his big beefy fist, caring not one whit about whether he woke up anyone, Nobu bellowed, "Kim! Get your ass out here!"

There was no reply. Nobu cursed under his breath and pounded on the door again. "Damn it, Kim! Open up, or I'm breaking the damn door down!"

Silence was again all that answered him. Feeling his temper reaching a crescendo, Nobu decided to make good on his threat. He kicked the door as hard as he could, and the strength in his tree trunk thick leg made short work of the wooden barrier. With a loud cracking sound, the door broke, sending a few splinters flying.

"Kim!" Nobu shouted as he stalked into the room. "Where the hell is… oh, _damn_." He breathed as he saw the inside of the apartment.

Gorou Kim was nowhere to be found, but there was ample evidence as to what had happened to him.

Blood was everywhere. The floor, the walls, the furniture, even the ceiling were all marked with dull brown stains of dried blood. The whole grizzly scene spoke of a very long and very painful slaughter.

"Oh shit," Nobu breathed. "Oh _shit_."

Venturing deeper into the apartment, his anger now having vanished in the face of his horror, Nobu went looking for Kim's remains. It wasn't a long search; Gorou Kim's home wasn't large. However, there was no trace of the kid. Whoever had killed him had apparently taken the body.

But they had left a calling card, Nobu realized. Embedded in the wall, half covered in blood, was a single piece of metal. A _bat-shaped_ piece of metal. It might well be the very same one Kim had been so brazenly showing off while he bragged about how he'd escaped Batgirl.

_Guess the Bat doesn't like it when people talk smack about her,_ he thought, slowly backing out of the room, and suddenly feeling like it would be a _very_ good idea to get far away from the apartment, _fast_.

He later considered it an accomplishment that he didn't go running from the apartment screaming.

* * *

_One night ago…_

Gorou Kim almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the knock at the door. It was probably a Yakuza enforcer coming to get him, having realized he was working for the Bat. Or maybe Batgirl had backstabbed him and called the police. Well, jail would be better than Yakuza vengeance.

Feeling his heart hammering in his chest, he approached the door with the greatest reluctance. He breathed a short but fervent prayer that he didn't find himself staring down the barrel of a gun the second he opened the door and then turned the knob.

He jumped backwards when he found himself looking at a figure clad entirely in black, his fright finding release in one explosive, almost reflexive moment.

"What?" Batgirl growled. "I _told_ you I was coming."

"I… yes, I know," Gorou said. "I just… I didn't expect you to…" he trailed off lamely.

"Sometimes I actually _do_ use the door, you know," Batgirl replied in a very dry tone of voice.

"Uh, right," Gorou said. "So, what's the plan?"

"You take these," she told him, holding out a manila envelope.

He accepted. "What's inside here?"

"Tickets. One for a train that'll take you to the northern shores of Nippon, and another for a ship that'll take you to Hokkaido," Batgirl replied. "Some money, too. I've found you a job in Hokkaido. It's nothing special, but it's honest work."

Gorou gaped stupidly at her. "Thank you."

"If you really want to thank me, you'll resist any temptations you might feel to return to crime," Batgirl replied. "I'll be keeping tabs on you, and if you slip back into your old life, I will personally throw you into a jail cell."

"Got it," Gorou said. "Say, what's in there?" he added with some trepidation, pointing at a large container Batgirl was carrying. He could hear something sloshing about inside.

"Pig's blood," Batgirl answered, opening the container.

"Oh," Gorou said faintly as she started getting to work, instantly realizing what she was doing.

"You have a boat to catch," she told him.

"R-Right," he said. "I guess I won't see you again."

"Not unless you screw up," Batgirl replied.

"Yeah," Gorou replied. "So… sayonara."

She simply grunted in reply, already involved with her work. Gorou hesitated, and then left his apartment for the last time.

* * *

"This can't be right," Shinji muttered to himself.

It was the first day of the Okinawa trip that he wasn't going on, and he had been invited by Mayumi to her place. After he had mentioned to her in passing that he was having trouble in physics, she had offered to tutor him over the break.

He didn't know why Mayumi had opted out of the class trip, but he had to admit he was grateful she had. He didn't want to spend the day at the apartment or the NERV base; Asuka was still in a bad mood about having to remain in the city while their classmates vacationed, and he didn't need to be chided about his bad grades by Misato again.

Yet now that he'd arrived at the address Mayumi had given him, Shinji felt certain that there was some kind of mistake. The place was practically a palace! He knew that she was rich, but this was too much.

However, after he double checked the address, it still seemed like he was in the right place, so he had no choice but to go up to the front door and ring the bell.

An older gentleman wearing a black suit opened the door after a minute or two.

"Good afternoon," he greeted. "Can I help you?"

"Uh, I'm Shinji Ikari and—"

"Ah, yes, Mayumi-san informed me of your visit," the butler said. "Please, come right in."

Shinji stepped through the door, feeling almost as anxious as he had the first time he'd walked across the threshold of Misato's apartment. The whole place reeked of money, and he, who'd rarely had a bedroom larger than a big closet, felt sorely out of place in it.

"Mayumi-san is in the study," the butler said. "I'll take you to her."

A study. This place had a study. Of course it had a study. It probably had a whole lot of rooms that no home he'd ever been in before had.

"Thank you," he said politely, his voice soft, nearly muted by the almost stifling sensation of being very out of place.

He followed the butler up to the second floor of Yamagishi Manor (it had three, not counting the underground levels), and was shown into a large room where the walls were all lined with shelves. There were more books on those shelves than could be found in some libraries.

"Shinji Ikari-san, Mayumi-san," the butler announced him. Shinji didn't think he'd ever been announced upon entering a room before.

"Hello, Shinji," the lady of the house said.

The sound of his friend's voice jolted him out of the surreal trance he'd found himself in, and his gazed snapped over to Mayumi. She was sitting in a large leather armchair. Several textbooks and pieces of paper were spread out over a round, oak table in front of her.

She managed to look like she belonged in that opulent mansion and like she didn't belong there at once. The mousey, shy girl didn't match anyone's image of the ultra-rich heiress, but she was clearly at ease in this environment.

"Uh, hi," Shinji replied, and then winced at how dumb he must have sounded.

Mayumi gave him one of her small smiles, seeming to sense his discomfort. "Well, don't just stand there," she chided him gently. "Sit down and get your books out."

"Oh, right," he said, moving to comply.

"Can I get you anything, Shinji-san?" the butler asked. "Tea, perhaps?"

"No, thank you," Shinji answered, feeling mortified at the idea of being waited on, especially by a complete stranger.

"I think we're fine, Motomu," Mayumi said, subtly shooing the butler away.

"Very good, Mayumi-san," he replied, but he withdrew from the room with noticeable reluctance.

"Okay," Mayumi said once the butler was finally gone. "So what do you need help with?"

"Um, I'm having trouble understanding thermal expansion," Shinji said as he opened up his textbook.

"Ah," Mayumi replied. "Well, the basic principle behind that is straightforward enough. Basically, things tend to expand when they get hot, and contract when they get cold. There are a couple of exceptions, however. Water, for example, expands when it freezes…"

* * *

Two hours passed with Mayumi patiently lecturing Shinji and answering any questions he had. He was impressed by the command she had of the material, especially considering that with her obvious wealth, she didn't really need to pay attention to her education to be confident that she'd be able to live comfortably in the future.

More than just the learning experience, Shinji found himself enjoying the peace and quiet. It was almost like his life prior to coming to Tokyo-3, except without the relentless loneliness he'd known then, and he quickly found himself forgetting that he was sitting more or less at the center of a huge mansion.

He was almost disappointed when he ran out of things he was having trouble with in class, despite the way his eyes were starting to ache from staring at his notes and textbooks for so long.

"Well, I hope I managed to help you today, Shinji," Mayumi said quietly as they went about the task of putting their books away.

"Oh, you definitely did," Shinji said earnestly. "Thank you."

She looked down, apparently embarrassed by the gratitude. "It was nothing, really," she said.

As if to curtail any further eye contact with him, she reached up to rub her eyes, pushing her glasses up to her forehead as she did so.

Shinji stared at her when she finally moved her hands away from her face.

"What?" Mayumi asked, quickly noticing his intent gaze.

"Sorry," Shinji apologized. "I've just never seen you without your glasses before. You're very pretty." He added before he could stop himself.

Her eyes widened at the compliment, and he saw her hand twitch as she almost reflexively reached up and brought her glasses back down. However, she stopped herself, and for once she didn't hide behind the dark curtain of her hair. Indeed, Shinji noticed that her shoulders suddenly seemed a bit straighter than they'd been before.

"Thank you," she said softly.

An awkward silence followed.

Mayumi finally broke it by clearing her throat. "You know, I understand why you couldn't be allowed to go on the trip, but it still stinks that you had to stay in the city."

"Why didn't you go?" Shinji asked.

Mayumi shrugged. "I'm not exactly a beach person."

He smiled slightly. "I know exactly how you feel," he said.

"We could swim here, though, if you'd like to, that is," Mayumi said. "There's a pool on the ground floor of the manor."

_Of course there is,_ Shinji thought, and for one terrible moment he feared that he'd spoken out loud. However, Mayumi just waited for a reply to her offer, so he must have managed to keep the thought to himself.

"Um, thank you, but no," he said. "I wouldn't want to impose, and I should probably get back home and start working on dinner." He added hastily.

He didn't know what embarrassed him more: the thought of Mayumi seeing just how skinny and pale he was, or having to confess to her that he couldn't swim.

"Oh, all right," Mayumi said.

"Maybe next time," Shinji promised before he could check himself, feeling guilty at the sound of her soft but obviously disappointed tone.

She offered him a small smile. "Next time," she said and rose from her chair. "Let me see you to the door."

Shinji almost told her automatically that he could see himself out. Then he remembered just how large Yamagishi Manor was and stopped himself. "Thank you," he said instead.

The brief trek to the front door was a silent one, but Shinji felt obligated to say something before he left.

"Um, thank you," he forced himself not to mumble, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "You were a really big help to me. If there's anything I can ever do for you…"

He was suddenly aware of how ludicrous it was for him of all people to be offering to help Mayumi while they stood in the entrance hall of her enormous mansion.

Fortunately, if she noticed, she chose not to point it out.

"Shinji, we're friends. You don't owe me anything," she said, then paused and added. "We are friends, aren't we?"

"Of course!" Shinji replied, surprised she'd even asked.

She smiled at him, and it wasn't one of the timid little things he was accustomed to by now, but a hundred-watt grin. Shinji found himself smiling back helplessly and musing that he'd like to see her smile like that when she wasn't wearing her glasses.

"I'm glad," Mayumi said.

"Me, too," Shinji replied truthfully. "Well, I have to go. I'll see you soon. Maybe tomorrow."

Mayumi nodded. "I'd like that," she said. "See you soon."

And with that he stepped outside and was gone. Mayumi closed the door behind him.

Motomu emerged from a nearby room the second Shinji had left. Mayumi arched an eyebrow at him. He ignored the gesture.

"So, that's the young Shinji Ikari," the butler commented.

"Yes," the raven-haired girl replied. "That's him."

"A polite young man," Motomu said, and then turned to look at her, a tiny grin on his face. "You know, Mayumi-san, if I didn't know better, I'd say you truly like him."

"Don't be absurd," Mayumi replied dismissively. "He's a nice person, but he's just a means to an end. I don't have time for such things. You know that."

Motomu grunted noncommittally. "Hmm, you could have pumped him for information today, and yet you chose not to."

"It would have been counterproductive in the long run," the bespectacled girl said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go down to the cave and review the recordings our bugs got before Cobblepot's men found them."

"Of course, Mayumi-san," Motomu replied, turning his head so she couldn't see the small smirk on his face.

* * *

The phone that sat on Oswald Cobblepot's desk was an antique, and it looked it. The phone wasn't cordless, which instantly marked it as an old appliance, but it was more than that. The thing sat upon four short brass legs, and its casing looked like it was made of white marble, even though it was really plastic. It looked like the sort of thing one might find in the home of an old but wealthy individual.

It went perfectly with the image of culture and aristocracy that Cobblepot loved to project, and at the moment, it was ringing.

"Hello?" the rotund man asked as he picked up the receiver, expertly keeping the cigarette holder clamped between his teeth even as he spoke.

"Hello, Penguin," a voice replied, one that Cobblepot knew better than he would have liked to.

Even though the caller couldn't see it, Cobblepot instantly forced a great, plastic smile onto his face. It was a force of habit. "Why, Gendo, what a pleasant surprise it is to hear from you!" he said, commanding himself to sound earnest and genuine. "Calling to reserve a table for tonight, I hope? A man in your position deserves a chance to—"

"Spare me the pleasantries," Gendo said brusquely. "We both know they're as false as your claims of being nothing more than a legitimate businessman."

Cobblepot finally allowed himself a scowl. "Fine," he sighed. "Why have you called?"

"I have hired someone to perform a task for me," Gendo said. "You will allow him access to your establishments and generally give him your cooperation."

"Now wait a minute!" Cobblepot exclaimed. "You can't just order me around like that!"

"Yes, I can," Gendo replied, his voice hard. "This city was built for NERV, it exists for NERV, and if you control any part of it, that is simply because NERV has no use for that part. Your operation is allowed to continue only because I do not deem it a worthwhile expenditure of resources to eradicate it. Do not give me a reason to rethink my priorities."

"Fine," Cobblepot growled. "What have you hired this man for, anyway?"

"Exterminating the Bat," Gendo answered.

The creases in Cobblepot's brow smoothed out. "Why didn't you say so before?" he asked.

After the incident at his club the other night, which the Bat was almost certainly responsible for, he was all for Ikari's efforts. And if he worked this right, Cobblepot mused, he could tell people that _he_ had ordered Ikari to send the assassin.

"You didn't ask, and I felt no need to inform you," was Gendo's curt response to his question.

Cobblepot ground his teeth in indignation at being so obviously snubbed, but he controlled his temper. "All right," he said. "Fine, I'll do what you ask. Just so long as you stop calling me Penguin."

Truly he loathed that moniker, which seemed to follow him no matter where he went, or what oceans he crossed.

"I think it's an appropriate name, but very well, Cobblepot," Ikari granted him at least this tiny civility.

"Good," Cobblepot said. "Now, what's your man's name?"

* * *

The metal plate which separated the city of Tokyo-3 from the Geofront below it was over a mile thick and housed one of the greatest labyrinths ever constructed by human hands. Most people would have gotten horrifically lost unless they brought a map, a compass, and a GPS.

Batgirl had no difficulty keeping her bearings. Indeed, she found that she liked the place and made a note to see if she could find a map of the plate's interior. It would aid her tremendously if she could regularly use the plate's various pathways for quick exits and entrances.

_It was a mistake to attempt to determine where Cobblepot's secret tunnel led to by trying to actually go through it,_ she decided. _This is far less risky._

Following the tunnel from beneath was little challenge for her; once she had located where it was above her, it was easily to follow the obvious shaft. As she'd suspected, it was leading straight to the poor and dangerous area of the city.

_A direct connection between both of his fronts. Clever,_ she thought as she reached the end of the tunnel.

Fortunately, there was a hatch in the tunnel shaft, so she didn't need to go to the trouble of making her own entrance or figuring out where she was and coming at the place from above ground.

Normally, she would have used one of her grappling hooks to help her get up to said hatch, but she couldn't risk making too much noise and alerting someone. So instead she removed a pair of large, black suction cups from her belt. They lacked a certain… finesse, but they were also a good deal quieter than any other method she could employ.

Strapping them to her hands, she quickly scaled the wall, making her way to the hatch. Old, poorly maintained hinges squeaked as she opened it, and the black-clad girl winced at the sound. She held her breath and kept perfectly still, ready to drop back down and flee the moment she heard someone coming. However, she waited for several minutes without hearing a sound.

Finally satisfied that no one had heard her, she climbed through the hatch and put the suction cups back in their place in her utility belt.

She had emerged in what looked like a basement or storage room. Large kegs of beer and bottles of other alcohol were neatly piled everywhere, making her think that Cobblepot's other legitimate front was also a bar of some kind.

A short stairway led up to a door with a window in it. Batgirl crept up the stairs and carefully peered through the window to find that she'd been right; the place was a bar, but it bore little resemblance of the Iceberg Lounge. There were no expensive, carefully made pillars of glass that had been crafted to look like ice here. This place was just your more-or-less typical, smoke-filled watering hole, not a place where the rich went to rub elbows, but where the poor went to drown their sorrows.

Unfortunately, the door was in plain sight of just about everyone in the bar.

Impatience had been tempering her actions too much as of late, she mused. Much as she might have liked to just bust inside and fight her way past the patrons and bouncers, or perhaps attempt the near-impossible task of sneaking past everyone, she knew it just wasn't a good idea.

Reaching into her utility belt again, she took out a small GPS device. Switching it on, she had the address of the building she was inside of within a moment. Quickly memorizing it, she turned the device off again and headed back the way she'd come.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Batgirl was rappelling onto the ceiling of Cobblepot's bar, approaching her target from above rather than below. The establishment looked even seedier on the outside than it did on the inside, and the building appeared to be actually learning to one side; if it was up to code, then she went out fighting crime in a bunny suit, Batgirl mused. Doubtlessly healthy bribes were the only things that kept building inspectors from closing the place down and having it demolished. A faded sign outside proclaimed that the bar had the unappealing name of the Artic Fish.

There was no door on the roof to allow her access to the inside of the building. Batgirl wasn't overly distressed.

"Claws," she commanded softly.

Retractable spikes immediately burst forth from the tips of her Batsuit's fingers and feet. Selecting a side of the building that did not face the street, Batgirl carefully climbed over the edge, easily burying the metallic claws into the old brick the building was built from.

The Artic Fish bar was a two-story building, and as she'd suspected, there were no patrons to be found on the second floor. Instead she discovered what looked like offices.

_Perfect, _she thought, opening one of the windows and cutting through the screen with her claws.

Gracefully entering the building without making a sound, Batgirl made her suit's claws retract again with a whispered command and began to creep through the crime lord's domain. The whole of the second floor was dark and quiet; apparently, Cobblepot wasn't there that evening.

She wasn't sure if she was more disappointed or relieved about that. His absence, and the absence of anyone from the second floor, would definitely make her job easier. However, she dearly would have enjoyed capturing him and sending him gift-wrapped to the police after she'd gotten enough evidence to have him arrested.

A few moments of searching brought her to the largest and most well-appointed office in the place. Numerous bird cages decorated the room, and though most of them were empty, a hooded peregrine falcon sat in one, snoozing beneath a black hood. Batgirl's eyebrow went up at the sight.

Well, she knew better than most how the wealthy often tended to pick up eccentricities. Having wealth as a result of criminal activities certainly did nothing to inure one against that tendency.

She planted a bug beneath the desk and then another on the underside of the falcon's cage, hoping that the latter might be missed even if the former was detected. Once that was done, she went over to the desk and quickly picked the lock on the largest drawer.

The only useful thing she found inside was documentation concerning a large shipment of uncensored pornography, which was disappointing but far from useless. Uncensored porn was illegal in Japan, and smuggling it into the country and selling it had long been a source of funding for the various Yakuza families. If she got it to the right cop, he might be able to use it to get the ball rolling where investigating and eventually arresting Cobblepot was concerned.

Of course, she would have preferred evidence of a far more heinous crime, such as drug smuggling or running a prostitution ring, but she already had ample reason to believe that Cobblepot was far too canny to just leave _that_ sort of thing lying around.

Batgirl continued to poke around the office for a little while longer, then widened her search for incriminating evidence to the rest of the floor, but she came up with nothing else.

_Guess I'll have to call myself done for tonight,_ she concluded reluctantly.

Going back to the window she'd used as an entrance, Batgirl once again departed into the night and scaled the side of the building. Once on the roof, she took out her grappling gun and carefully surveyed her choice of targets. Selecting one, she aimed and pulled the trigger. There was a muffled _pfft!_ as a blast of compressed air sent the grappling hook sailing upwards.

A shuriken came racing toward her, whistling as it spun through the air at high speed. Batgirl heard it coming before she saw it, and she barely managed to dodge the deadly little projectile in time. However, though she herself was unscathed, the line that connected her gun to her grappling hook was cleanly severed.

She immediately put the gun back into its place and whirled around, getting into a defensive stance. Batgirl managed to do all three things in one fluid movement.

"Infra—"

"Going somewhere, Batgirl?" a voice taunted her as its owner stepped out of the shadows.

Her new foe was clad in a black, full body costume that revealed only his eyes. A red belt of some kind around his waist provided the ensemble's only splash of color. She could see the hilt of a sword which was strapped to his back.

It was exactly what people whose only knowledge of ninjas came from movies thought ninjas wore, but Batgirl didn't believed for a moment that the man who stood before her was some overenthusiastic, undereducated amateur. She could see in his stance that he was a true warrior.

That, and she thought she recognized his voice. The caped crusader couldn't quite place it, but she knew the ninja who stood before was not an opponent to be taken lightly.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"They call me the Ninja," the man responded.

"Clever," Batgirl replied sardonically.

"It suits me," the Ninja said.

Batgirl just grunted in response to that. For a long, tense moment afterwards, the two enemies simply stood their ground, unmoving as they sized one another up. A gentle breeze rustled Batgirl's cape.

And then, as if on some unseen signal, the two of them charged at one another. Batgirl's gloved fist surged forward, aimed right at the Ninja's head. Before her knuckles could connect with his face, however, his fingers clamped down on her wrist, and she felt herself being thrown over his shoulder.

Batgirl landed well and immediately lashed out with her leg, intending to sweep his feet out from under him. The Ninja managed to dodge her kick, unfortunately, and quickly retaliated with one of his own. The bottom of his shoe impacted solidly with her chest, and she let out a grunt as she really fell to the ground this time.

There was a ring of steel as the Ninja drew his katana, and Batgirl's eyes widened as he thrust the blade downwards, clearly intending to run her through.

She rolled out of the just in time, and the katana was buried in the roof of the building rather than her chest. The ninja tried to free the weapon, but Batgirl didn't give him the opportunity, instantly getting back on her feet and unleashing a series of punches at the Ninja's abdomen. He released a grunt of pain and staggered back a few steps, away from the sword.

However, he was still far from unarmed, even if one didn't count his martial arts skills. A glint of moonlight on metal alerted the caped crusader to the presence of the dagger that was suddenly in his right hand, and she grabbed hold of his wrist, attempting to throw him and wrench the weapon from his grasp at the same time. But he expected the move, and he resisted it. The two of them began to grapple fiercely.

Then they began to slow, their effort slackening as the two masters of the martial arts recognized one another's personal styles as only those who were as skilled as they could. The two masked combatants stared at each other in shock, and then simultaneously drew back from one another, both taking several steps back.

"Kyodai Ken?" Batgirl breathed.

"Little girl?" he replied.

* * *

_Four years ago…_

The interior of the dojo was stifling, which was no great surprise. The perpetual summer that had gripped Japan and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere since the Second Impact didn't help, but that wasn't what had really warmed up the inside of the large training room. What had really done that was the combined body heat of over a dozen men as they went through their vigorous morning exercises.

Over a dozen men…and one ten-year-old girl.

Still, no one dared to complain about the heat. Yoru Sensei had made it clear that a true martial artist bore discomfort with dignified stoicism.

As the morning exercises came to an end, everyone turned to their teacher. Sunlight reflected off his bald head, and his long beard was as white as snow, but there was no hint of feebleness in his movements, and his dark eyes were unclouded by senility. He instead had an aura of quiet strength about him.

"Very good," he said. "Now that you have all concluded your daily warm up, let us proceed to some sparring practice."

Grins appeared on the faces of the students.

"I will put you into pairs," Yoru Sensei said, causing those grins to fade a little.

The old man moved swiftly through the group of his students, not making use of his wooden walking stick at all and only further strengthening their suspicion that he only carried the thing around for effect.

"Daisuke, with Hiro," he said. "Isao, with Junichi."

The two pairs of men immediately started their sparring practice, and Yoru Sensei moved on. Katsu was assigned to fight with Kou. Mamoru with Nobu. And…

"Kyodai, with Mayumi."

"But Sensei, sparring with a child is a waste of time," the dojo's star pupil protested.

Yoru Sensei's dark eyes flashed. "Do you think I would assign you a pointless exercise, my student?"

Kyodai looked down at the mat. "No, Yoru Sensei," he answered contritely.

"Then spar," Yoru Sensei said firmly before going off to scrutinize his other students' technique.

Obviously still disgruntled, Kyodai Ken turned to face Mayumi Yamagishi. Though dressed in a white gi and loose black pants like the rest of the students, the girl still couldn't have looked more out of place in the dojo. Roughly half the height of most of the men present, she was as thin as a stick. The dark blue shirt she was wearing beneath her gi was already soaked with sweat; just the morning exercises had left her severely winded, if not exhausted. To top it all off, she was wearing goggles on her face, because it would've been too dangerous for her to wear her glasses while training. The lenses left the image of her eyes heavily distorted.

And yet for all that, she stood before him in a form perfect defensive stance.

Yoru Sensei didn't usually accept little girls as students, of course, but he'd made an exception for Yamagishi. The old man said it was because of her incredible desire to learn martial arts, but everyone knew that she the anonymous philanthropist whose donation had saved the dojo from financial ruin.

It infuriated Kyodai that she'd bought her way into the dojo, and that she dared to stand before him like she was a worthy opponent. Indeed, just about everything about her infuriated him.

He decided that if she wanted to play at being a real martial artist, he would oblige her.

"Go," he said, starting off with a kick.

His bare foot crashed into the young girl's abdomen with every bit of force he could muster and she went crashing down to the mat, her face tightening with pain, though no cry escaped her mouth. In a moment she was back on her feet.

And Kyodai began his assault in earnest, unleashing a flurry of punches, kicks, and advanced throws. The girls tried to resist his attacks, but she wasn't strong enough and her short arms and legs lacked the necessary reach. And yet she endured it all without either a cry of pain or a plea for mercy.

Finally, she collapsed bonelessly to the training mat, reduced to a small mound of quivering flesh clad in sweat soaked training clothes. Kyodai nodded in satisfaction, content with having released the bile he had for the little rich girl. Surely, she'd realize that she didn't belong at the dojo now and go back to her mansion. He turned to inform Yoru Sensei that his sparring partner could not continue.

"Ken-san," a small, pained voice spoke from behind him.

Kyodai spun, and his eyes widened as he stared incredulously at Yamagishi. The girl had somehow forced herself back to her feet and had again assumed a defensive position. She was shaking badly, and it was obvious that she had to struggle just to remain standing. And yet she was practically begging for more punishment.

Well, far be it from him to refuse her, Kyodai Ken decided as he got into an attack stance.

A strong but gnarled hand fell upon his shoulder and stopped him before the one-sided sparring match could continue.

"Enough, Kyodai," Yoru Sensei said firmly. "This exercise is over."

"Yes, Yoru Sensei," Kyodai agreed reluctantly.

He turned his gaze back to Yamagishi just in time to see her give him a small, formal bow, as was customary after such a sparring match.

He did not bow to her in return.

* * *

_Present Day…_

"Well, well, well, when I was hired to eliminate the famous Batgirl, I was expecting to have to deal with a formidable warrior," Kyodai Ken said arrogantly as he sheathed the dagger he'd been holding, "not a little rich girl."

"I am not so little anymore," Batgirl snapped, firing a punch right at him.

Her gloved fist crashed into his cheek, and his head snapped to the side from the force of the blow. Even as he reeled, Batgirl punched him in the kidney with her other fist, and a gasp of pain escaped him.

It had been almost two years since she'd even _thought_ about Kyodai Ken, but having him right before her, calling her a little girl again, had brought it all back. All the pain and humiliation he'd felt the need to dish out to her. All the anger.

That night, she _enjoyed_ her job more than she had in a very long while.

Until, that was, Kyodai made his move.

He moved with such lightning speed that Batgirl, in her furious state, never stood a chance of blocking him. The Ninja struck out with the index and middle fingers of his right hand, jabbing at her firmly at a spot near where her right arm met her shoulder and then again by her right hip.

Had he hit her anywhere else, the jabs wouldn't have done more than annoy her and perhaps leave a little bruise. But Kyodai Ken knew the human body's weak points too well to waste an attack in such a manner. Batgirl's right arm and leg instantly went numb.

_Damn,_ she thought as her attacks were halted dead.

The Ninja struck her in the neck with a karate chop, and Batgirl went sprawling to the ground, helpless to stop her fall with half her limbs suddenly immobilized.

Looming over her, Kyodai again drew the dagger he'd had earlier. "Easiest money I ever made," he said, brandishing the weapon.

Batgirl responded by using her good arm to withdraw a small pellet from her utility belt and hurl it at the ground.

A great cloud of gray green smoke exploded forth from the shattered capsule, and Kyodai Ken started to cough violently as the noxious smelling gas invaded his mouth and nose. Batgirl somehow managed to get to her feet while he was blind and choking and began to limp away, her right leg dragging uselessly on the ground after her.

She was almost to the edge of the roof when the wind picked up and blew away enough of the smoke for the Ninja to spot her. He sprinted forward, intent on stopping her.

There was no time for her to even attempt to do what she knew she had to do gracefully; the Ninja would be on her if she hesitated.

"Claws," she grunted, and the metal spikes again made an appearance.

Then she threw herself off the side of the building.

The caped crusader reached out with her left arm as she fell, plunging the claws into the side of the building. It slowed her down but didn't stop her, and she left long slashes in the brick wall as she fell.

All too soon, she landed hard on the concrete ground, in an alleyway between the Artic Fish and the neighboring building. Ignoring the pain and the scent of stale vomit, she got up and staggered over to a dumpster. She took a deep breath, trying to make herself as small as possible, and then she squeezed into the narrow space between the dumpster and the wall it was situated next to.

"Stealth mode," she whispered.

Tiny cameras in her batsuit activated, recording her surroundings. The image the cameras on the back of her suit captured were projected onto the front of her suit, and vice versa. It wasn't true invisibility, but it was the closest thing that modern technology could achieve.

It was perhaps the batsuit's most impressive feature, and the caped crusader would have used it far more often if not for how quickly the stealth mode drained the suit's energy reserves.

But would it fool the Ninja?

_Looks like I'm going to find out,_ she thought as Kyodai Ken landed gracefully on the ground nearby.

The Ninja had retrieved his sword before going to pursue her, and as the top of the blade had already been damaged when he'd accidentally plunged it into the roof, he showed no reservation in using it to poke in the places where he thought Batgirl might have been hiding.

She held her breath as he drew closer to her dumpster, trying not to make even the slightest sound. Surely, she told herself, her hiding place was so small that he wouldn't think it could possibly conceal a person.

He did. Moonlight glinted off the blade of his katana as he prepared to thrust it at the space where she was concealed. Batgirl grimaced. She had always known she could die, doing what she did. But she had never dreamed it would be by this bastard's hand.

Then a door on the side of the building burst open and Kyodai Ken's head snapped over to it as he looked at the man who staggered out.

As the two of them watched, the man fell to his knees and vomited; the guy was just a drunk who'd had one too many.

But the distraction he'd provided was enough. The Ninja passed by Batgirl's dumpster without thrusting his sword behind it. She resisted the urge to heave a sigh of relief.

Kyodai Ken continued to stalk through the alley for a few more minutes before moving his search elsewhere. The drunk staggered off at about the same time.

Batgirl reached up with her left hand and tapped the side of her cowl. "Motomu," she breathed.

"Yes, Mayumi-san?" he asked, and she could hear the concern in his voice. He knew something was wrong.

"Come get me," she said.

"I'm on my way," he said at once.

No demands for explanations. No taking the opportunity to remind her that he'd told her being Batgirl was an unwise idea. Just "I'm on my way".

"Thank you," she said.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Motomu arrived, pulling up in a modest Toyota Corolla rather than one of the more flashy cars that were part of the Yamagishi estate. Her butler always had had discretion down to an art form.

"What happened to you?" he asked as he helped her into the back seat.

"Nerve taps," she grunted. "It'll wear off eventually."

"Well, I should certainly hope so," he said emphatically he shut the car door for her.

Motomu then got behind the wheel and began to drive away. Batgirl allowed herself to relax marginally. For a few minutes, they traveled in heavy silence. It wasn't until they were almost back at Yamagishi Manor that she spoke.

"It was Kyodai Ken," she said.

"My word," Motomu breathed. "The fellow who was always antagonizing you while you were at Yoru-san's dojo?"

"The very same," she answered grimly.

Motomu hesitated for a moment. "Mayumi-san, if he's in town, then perhaps…maybe you should…"

"I'm not going to hide from him, Motomu," she growled with more heat than she'd intended.

She neglected to mention that Kyodai Ken knew Mayumi Yamagishi lay beneath Batgirl's cowl. Motomu worried enough already, and unless she missed her guess, the Ninja wouldn't expose her. He wanted to defeat, humiliate, and kill her personally.

"But Mayumi-san," he protested, "if this sort of thing happens when you confront him…"

"This won't happen again," Batgirl vowed. "I won't let it."

The butler sighed. "As you say, Mayumi-san."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so our girl meets the Ninja, and the outcome is…less than glorious for her. Remember folks, Mayumi's still pretty new to this game, and for all Batman tries to come off as invincible, even he's had his ass handed to him a couple of time.

On a different subject, I have to admit I'm not sure how it ended up that Mayumi has so many pots on the proverbial stove. Here's hoping I can resolve all of them gracefully by the end. Makes up for the lack of Angel battles, huh?

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. And thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

The End of Batgirl's Street Cred

The caped crusader was in his element, speeding through the dark night air on her motorcycle, she knew she was where she belonged. It was nights like this that made her certain she'd never relinquish the mantle of Batgirl.

"Help!"

Nights like this and situations like that, the dark lady decided as she brought her bike to a stop, spotting a gang of thugs harassing a young woman,

"What are you boys up to?" she demanded in the gravelly voice she used while being Batgirl.

To her surprise and dismay, the group of thugs started laughed. "Who the heck are you?" one of them asked.

Batgirl narrowed her eyes. "I am vengeance, I am the night, I am—"

"Wearing a bunny costume," one of the thugs finished.

Horrified, she looked down at herself to see that it was true. Somehow, instead of her inky black batsuit, she was garbed in a white bunny costume. It even had a hood with long floppy ears attached to it.

Mayumi suddenly felt very stupid, vulnerable, and generally very not-Batgirl-like. The gang of thugs began to advance on her.

Mayumi screamed—

* * *

—and woke up, finding herself safe and sound in her bed, covered in a cold sweat.

A moment later, Motomu burst in, her scream having brought him running. The butler immediately calmed down when he saw she was unharmed.

"The dream again?" he asked.

"It was different this time," Mayumi replied. "I wasn't in my underwear this time. Instead, it was a bunny costume."

Motomu just looked at her silently.

"For the last time, no, I will not see a psychologist," Mayumi growled.

The butler sighed. "Very well, Mayumi-san," he said. "I'm guessing you'll be wanting your usual post-nightmare cup of hot cocoa?"

"Extra marshmallows, Motomu," she replied.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Five: **Night of the Bat

"Hot springs? That sounds nice," Mayumi said, holding her phone to her ear. "I wish I could go up there, too, but I don't think the government's fully lifted the evacuation orders. Only people who live in that area are allowed in there."

"Oh," Shinji said, clearly disappointed. "I just thought that since you're pretty much alone in the city right now, so you might want to come, but you probably have better things to do anyway."

"That's not true!" Mayumi exclaimed, then let out a little squeak, as though shocked at her own outburst. She continued in a much softer voice. "I would go up there to meet you if I could. Say, when do you get back?"

"Not until tomorrow evening," Shinji said sadly, both of them knowing that school resumed the day after tomorrow. "I guess you're all alone for the rest of the vacation. Sorry."

"It's all right," Mayumi said. "We'll do something when you get back. Maybe swim in the pool at the manor."

"Um, yeah, maybe," Shinji said without much enthusiasm.

Mayumi was unsurprised by his reluctance, knowing he couldn't swim. However, her cover required her to play dumb about that, so she wasn't quite letting the issue drop, even though she knew she'd probably never get him into her pool room.

_Which is too bad,_ she mused. _It would be fun, and I wouldn't mind getting him shirtless._

The raven haired heiress blinked as soon as she realized what she'd just thought. Where had _that_ come from?

Ignoring it, she turned her attention back to the conversation. "Well, I'll see you when you get back," she said. "And please, try to enjoy yourself. I'll be fine here. Really."

"All right," Shinji said. "See you. Bye."

"Bye," Mayumi said, then hung up.

Motomu was nearby, and she handed her phone to him. She normally would have just pocketed the phone, but the white karate gi and loose black pants she was wearing offered her no place in which to do so.

"I'm surprised you didn't ask him about the battle," the butler said.

"Hmm?" Mayumi grunted as she turned her attention to the large punching bag that hung in the corner of her personal gym.

"I said that I was surprised you didn't ask him about the battle," Motomu repeated.

"Oh," Mayumi said as she unleashed a flurry of hard punches and kicks at the bag. "Well, Shinji usually doesn't respond well if I ask him about NERV related affairs. It's better to wait for him to tell me. Besides, if I was going to ask him about NERV, I'd be trying to get information about the layout of the base, not rundowns on the Angel battles."

"As you say, Mayumi-san," Motomu replied.

There was a hint of sarcasm in the butler's voice, and Mayumi knew why. Ever since Shinji had come to Yamagishi Manor to study with her, Motomu had latched onto the idea that she really liked the EVA pilot.

Stoically ignoring the implication, Mayumi redoubled her assault on the punching bag, even as her knuckles and legs began to ache from hitting it and her clothing became damp with sweat.

Finally, she unleashed one particularly ferocious kick and the chain that suspended the bag from the ceiling snapped. The bag flew a short distance, crashing into the corner of the room. Thankfully, it did not split and spill sand all over the floor or damage the sturdy walls of the gym.

"Whew," Mayumi sighed, wiping sweat from her brow and then rolling her neck. "Motomu, would you help me put that back up?"

"As you wish, Mayumi-san, but don't you think you deserve a break?" he asked.

"No," she answered flatly as she dragged the bag toward her until it was again position beneath the chain.

Sighing, Motomu found a pair of pliers that had been left in the gym. This was not the first time Mayumi had knocked the punching bag off, and he was an old hand at fixing the chain by now.

"It's just that you've been pushing yourself even harder than usual since your… altercation with Kyodai Ken," Motomu said. "I'm not sure if it's healthy."

"I'm… fine!" Mayumi said with a grunt as she hefted the large punching bag off the floor in an impressive show of strength, raising it high enough for the butler to go to work.

"As you say, Mayumi-san," Motomu replied as he repaired the chain, recognizing defeat. "By the way, do you intend to go out tonight?"

"Of course," she replied as she stood up straight and resumed her assault on the bag. "I have some errands to run tonight."

* * *

Gendo Ikari was not pleased.

Of course, many people in NERV believed that Gendo Ikari was _never_ pleased. However, even those pessimistic souls recognized that there were different levels of displeasure that the Commander could experience, and that it was best to avoid him when he was in an especially bad mood.

Kyodai Ken didn't have that option at the moment, but then again, the Ninja didn't seem terribly flustered by his current employer's cold gaze.

"I'm disappointed," Gendo said. "You told me that you were the best assassin in the world, and yet Batgirl still lives."

"I had no trouble defeating the little girl, but she proved to be slippery prey," Kyodai Ken said evenly. "I will end her. I merely need to find her and fight her in a decisive battle."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Gendo asked. "If you're as much better than her as you say, wouldn't it stand to reason that this slippery prey would make a point of avoiding you?"

"I have a way of drawing her out of hiding," Kyodai Ken replied.

Gendo arched an eyebrow. "Is there something I should know?"

"No," Kyodai Ken answered flatly. "I will bring you Batgirl's head soon. That is all that is important."

Gendo stared at the ninja for a long moment. Kyodai responded by absently toying with his katana and pointedly _not_ sweating.

"Very well," Gendo said. "Do not come back here before you kill her."

"The only reason I came here today was because you asked for a report," Kyodai replied. "Good day, Ikari-san."

* * *

Riding her Batcycle, the dark lady drove through the twilit streets of Tokyo-3, a very specific destination in mind.

She tried to put Kyodai Ken out of her mind as she went and remain mindful of all the other things she had to worry about. However, it was a difficult thing to do; as Batgirl, she had faced a wide array of foes, despite the relatively short time she'd been wearing her cowl, but someone who was probably a better martial artist than she herself, and who knew just how to press all her buttons to boot?

She had never faced someone like that as Batgirl, and it was difficult for her not to spend every waking second trying to come up with ways to win such a battle.

And the fact that she was going on what would basically be a long, boring stakeout that evening wasn't going to make staying focused on her task any easier.

Coming to a stop before she had quite reached her destination, the dark lady quickly hid her Batcycle and activated its anti-theft device. Then she finished the trip by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Once she was close enough to observe the area she wanted, she found herself a place on a fire escape where the gathering darkness made her all but invisible and settled down to wait.

The people who had encounters with Batgirl were often struck by her entrances from seemingly nowhere, as well as her abrupt, mysterious exits. She liked to think that she made both look easy, but the fact of the matter was, they often weren't. Especially the entrances; they sometimes required quite a lot of waiting.

So Batgirl waited. For the first hour or so, she maintained a laser-like focus on her objective. However, the mind of even someone like herself began to wander eventually, and she found hers drifting back to the issue of Kyodai Ken, and the time she had spent as his fellow student at Yoru Sensei's dojo.

* * *

_Four years ago…_

"I am honored to meet you combat, Ken-san," Mayumi said bowing formally to her opponent.

Kyodai did not return the gesture, which was, of course, nothing less than an appalling show of disrespect from the elder martial artist. However, the girl wasn't the least bit surprised by this; she had long ago ceased to expect any modicum of respect or civility from the man. She silently adjusted the prescription goggles she wore and got into a defensive stance.

"Begin," he said.

She attacked at once, lashing out with a kick and hoping her speed would catch him by surprise. However, she had no such luck, and he easily caught her foot in his hand. Instantly, she tried to strike with her other foot, but he was too quick for her, giving her a hard shove that sent her sprawling onto the training mat.

Young Mayumi was back on her feet in a heartbeat, and she charged the elder fighter, fists flying in form perfect punches.

Form perfect punches which never connected. Kyodai Ken struck with a savage kick, his bare foot crashing into her abdomen with more than enough force to knock the wind from her lungs. Mayumi took on a peculiar bug-eyed appearance beneath her goggles, and her mouth formed a nearly perfect "O" as she released a soundless cry of pain.

But Kyodai wasn't done yet. Blows rained down upon Mayumi so quickly that she could barely keep track of which part of her body was in the freshest agony, and she knew she would have new bruises to replace the ones which were fading.

Finally, Kyodai relented. "You have been defeated," he said contemptuously, and turned to walk away.

Somehow, Mayumi found the strength to get back to her feet before he left the training room. "I thank you for the match, Ken-san," she said formally, managing a stiff bow. "I pray you will be willing to indulge me with another."

The man turned, his dark eyes flashing as he was confronted with a sight he had become all too familiar with ever since Yoru Sensei had made them spar that one afternoon. This little slip of a girl—of a _child_—standing before him with her training clothes damp with sweat, with her narrow chest heaving, with her clearly having difficulty standing because of the pain she was in…was asking for more.

This had become something of a daily battle of wills between the two of them. Mayumi would challenge Kyodai to spar, and he'd defeat her ruthlessly, of course. But she would always, always ask for a second, and sometimes a third round, no matter how badly he beat her. He couldn't comprehend it.

He couldn't _begin_ to comprehend it.

And he was starting to lose patience with it.

"Why, little girl?" he asked, finally breaking their little ritual.

"I am afraid I do not understand," Mayumi replied, still keeping that attitude of cool, formal civility about her.

"Why do you come here, day in and day out, just so I can beat you?" Kyodai demanded.

"Because I have to be the best," Mayumi answered.

"You _have_ to be the best?" Kyodai asked incredulously. "Why do you _have_ to be the best, little rich girl? Why can't you just go home and curl up in the lap of luxury?"

"That is not your concern," Mayumi replied.

"More like it's a lie," Kyodai scoffed. "You have no need to master the art of combat at all, much less be the best at it! Which is an impossible task, anyway! There is always someone better than you!"

"That logic is flawed," Mayumi pointed out coolly. "Someone must be the best."

"Perhaps, but it will never be you, little girl," Kyodai Ken sneered. "Now, tell me, why do you return here everyday to ask for abuse from me?"

"Because I want to _beat_ you," Mayumi said softly, the veneer of politeness she'd assumed cracking at last.

"Ah, so now we get to the heart of the matter," Kyodai Ken smirked. "The rich girl got her ego bruised by me, and now she attempts to gain revenge, even though she has no chance of success."

"That remains to be seen," Mayumi replied, her tone cool and formal once more. "Now, Ken-san, will you do me the honor of another match?"

"With pleasure," he replied.

This time, Kyodai Ken didn't even bother to declare the start of their new contest. Instead, he swept Mayumi's legs out from under her with a quick kick and then grabbed her, easily lifting the slight girl into the air. Mayumi tried desperately to escape his hold, but she had precious little time in which to do so. As quick as lightning, the man executed a fierce throw, sending the ten-year-old girl crashing into the training mat so hard that the sound of it reverberated off the walls of the training room.

"Is this how you plan to defeat me, little girl?" Kyodai taunted, kicking the downed girl hard in the ribs.

Mayumi just released a grunt of pain and did not respond.

"Answer me!" Kyodai hissed, kicking her again, harder this time.

Again, Mayumi could find no voice to speak with. She could barely think, except to contemplate that he was likely to break her ribs if he kicked with much more force next time.

"Kyodai Ken!" a harsh voice from the doorway interrupted the martial artist's rant.

"Yoru Sensei," Kyodai said.

"What are you doing?!" the old man demanded, stepping inside the room. "How dare you assault Mayumi in this fashion!"

"So now am I required to bow down to the one who bought her way into this dojo?" Kyodai Ken asked.

"You are required to show respect for your teacher!" Yoru Sensei roared. "And while you are _not_ required to _like_ any of your fellow students, you are not allowed to assault them!"

"Master," Mayumi wheezed out, slowly moving into a sitting position. "Kyodai did not assault me. I challenged him to a sparring match."

The old man's eyes widened and then shifted to Kyodai. "This is true?" he asked.

"Yes, Yoru Sensei."

The martial arts master paused for a moment, both to take this information and still his temper. "Very well," he said. "Kyodai, we will talk later about your show of disrespect a moment ago."

"Yes, Yoru Sensei."

"And I'd suggest you both display less…intensity during your training from now on," the old man said, then departed from the room.

Mayumi and Kyodai were silent for a few moments after he left, except for her panting as her body desperately tried to get more oxygen. Finally, when he was quite sure that Yoru Sensei was out of earshot, Kyodai spoke.

"Why did you do that?" he asked. "You could have seen me expelled just by remaining silent. Why did you tell him you challenged me?"

"Because it was the truth," Mayumi answered evenly. "And because I don't want to beat you that way."

"You are a fool," Kyodai Ken proclaimed, then left her there, sitting on the floor and waiting for the pain to pass.

* * *

_Present time…_

With a sigh, Batgirl reached into her utility belt and withdrew a small cell phone. Dialing a number she hadn't used in quite some time, she held the phone up to her ear.

"Hello?"

She smiled beneath her cowl at the sound of the familiar voice, which hadn't changed a bit since she had heard it last; it brought back every good memory she had of her martial arts training, much like Kyodai Ken brought back all the unpleasant ones.

"Hello, Yoru Sensei," she replied in her 'Mayumi' voice.

"Ah, Mayumi, it is good to hear from you," the old man said cheerfully, recognizing her instantly.

Though, considering that she was one of the few females, and the only person in her teens, who would ever call him "Sensei" that perhaps wasn't terribly impressive. However, Batgirl liked to think that he would have recognized her even if doing so hadn't been so comically simple.

"It's good to hear your voice as well, Yoru Sensei," she said.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Yoru Sensei asked.

"I need a reason contact the best teacher I ever had?" she replied.

"You honor this old man, but you cannot trick him," Yoru Sensei said, a trace of mirth in his voice. "I would not be so foolish to believe that you have decided to spontaneously get in touch with me after such a long period of silence."

"My apologies, Yoru Sensei," Batgirl said humbly.

"It is all right. As I said, it is a pleasure to hear from you," Yoru Sensei said, "but you still have not told me the purpose of your call."

"It's about…Kyodai Ken," she said.

"And why do you call about _him_?" Yoru Sensei asked, his voice suddenly far less cheerful.

"I recently moved into Tokyo-3, and I had heard…rumors that he's here," Batgirl said carefully. "I was wondering why he would have departed from the dojo, if that the rumor was true. I was under the impression that you'd made him the assistant master."

"Against my better judgment, yes, I did," Yoru Sensei replied tiredly. "He was my most talented student, and I hoped that the responsibly would temper his nature."

"It sounds like Kyodai failed to live up to your expectations," Batgirl observed.

"Indeed," Yoru Sensei said. "Nor did his new position make him less brutal and greedy. Instead, he misused the knowledge that I made him privy to when I elevated his standing."

Batgirl's eyes widened. "Do you mean…?"

"Yes," Yoru Sensei said gravelly. "He attempted to steal the scrolls that contain the secrets of the Kiba no Houkou."

"Attempted?" Batgirl asked urgently, almost forgetting to sound like Mayumi.

The Kiba no Houkou, or Way of the Fang, was a style of martial arts that had been created by one of Yoru Sensei's ancestors. It was reputed to have been so deadly that Yoru Sensei had hidden the scrolls containing its secrets away and had never read them himself. Apparently, tradition had bound him to reveal their location to Kyodai Ken upon making the man his assistant headmaster at the dojo, but the Ninja had not felt similarly compelled to respect his master's wishes and do nothing with the knowledge.

"Time had taken its toll on the scrolls," Yoru Sensei said. "When Kyodai opened the box that contained them, they disintegrated. They were nearly useless to him."

"Nearly useless?" Batgirl repeated.

Yoru Sensei sighed. "After discovering what he'd done, I was eventually able to reassemble the pieces of the scrolls," he said. "There was one large piece missing, and it seems like that piece had the knowledge of how to perform the Oonemuri Touch."

"The Great Sleep Touch? I've never heard of such a thing," Batgirl said.

"No, I don't imagine you would have," Yoru Sensei said. "The Great Sleep Touch is an attack that can kill someone with a single blow."

"Where?" Batgirl asked. "Where must the attacker strike the victim to make it work?"

"Only Kyodai Ken knows that," Yoru Sensei replied.

"I see," she said.

Batgirl fell silent as she pondered this disturbing new revelation. In all likelihood, Kyodai Ken could have killed her at just about any point during their brief battle, but he hadn't, probably because he'd been toying with her. The idea made her blood boil, and she found herself trying to figure out how she might beat him in spite of the devastating advantage he possessed, rather than attempting to formulate a way of neutralizing him without ever letting him get close enough to her to administer the Touch at all.

"Why do you ask me these things, Mayumi?" Yoru Sensei asked, pulling Mayumi from her thoughts. "You don't intend to try and confront Kyodai Ken, do you?"

"Of course not," she lied at once, then felt a twinge of guilt at deceiving this man.

"Hmm," Yoru Sensei made a thoughtful noise. "You know, Mayumi, never before did I have a student who possessed such a passion to learn the fighting arts and yet seemed to have such little use for them."

"Yes, well, the rich can be very eccentric, Yoru Sensei," she quipped.

"So it would seem."

"Now, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I'm afraid I have to go," Batgirl said, as she spotted the person she'd been waiting to see emerge from the building she had staked out.

"Very well," Yoru Sensei said. "Good night, Mayumi."

"Good night, Sensei," she replied, then put the phone away.

A moment later, she was leaping out of the shadows, landing right next to a fairly ordinary looking man with a mustache who had gone outside his home to put out the trash. Despite the considerable height she had descended from, her feet made no sound as they hit the sidewalk. The man didn't turn around.

"Jun Godo," she spoke his name.

_That_ made him turn around. The man spun on his heel, then gasped as he saw Batgirl standing before him. For a moment, she thought he might try and attack her or turn and run in his surprise, but fortunately he controlled himself.

"Wh…why…?" he stammered.

"I'm here because I want a word with you," Batgirl said simply.

* * *

Back at Yamagishi Manor, Motomu was currently within Mayumi's extensive personal gym, painstakingly cleaning the machines. The butler knew that this was something of a futile endeavor; the place would inevitably smell like sweat, just like any other gym, no matter what he did.

There were, of course, other tasks he could be seeing to. In a home as large as Yamagishi Manor, there always were, and that was before taking the Batcave into consideration. Yet he found himself lingering in the gym, cleaning a room that wasn't going to get significantly cleaner and wasn't very pleasant smelling to boot.

He was worried about Mayumi. This wasn't exactly new to him; he worried about his charge and employer every time she went out in the guise of her alter ego, and he worried about what maintaining that alter ego might eventually do to her.

However, that evening he had achieved a new level of worry. Not only was the man Mayumi had never been able to defeat in town and after Batgirl's blood, but she had become even more obsessed than usual in response to her recent defeat at his hands.

_I thought she might be getting less…intense,_ he thought. _I _know_ she's warming up to that Ikari boy, despite what she says on the matter. Then, just as things are improving, that brute Kyodai Ken appears._

All of it made him wonder, not for the first time, if he should pull the plug on Mayumi's late night activities, as well as if he even could.

"One can only wonder how she'd react if she came home, and I just told her she had to stop being Batgirl," Motomu mused aloud. "Just said to her 'Mayumi-san, I must demand that you cease being Batgirl and going out into danger every night. I will expose you, if that is what is required to stop you.'"

The butler honestly wasn't sure if his charge would acquiesce or respond by hog tying him and hurling him into a particularly dark corner of the Batcave. He liked to think that she would never do the latter, and yet he knew she was far too committed to her self assigned mission to simply hang up her cape and cowl.

The sound of movement from behind him jolted the butler from his thoughts. "Mayumi-san?" he asked, turning.

"No, the little girl is not here," Kyodai Ken smirked.

Gasping, Motomu quickly looked about, rapidly assessing the situation. There was only one viable exit to the gym, and the Ninja was standing right in the doorway. With flight not an option, the butler had no choice but to attempt to fight.

Snagging a ten pound free weight off of a nearby rack, the older man charged the younger, hoping that the sheer audacity of what he was doing would stun the Ninja into paralysis.

It did not. Kyodai Ken reached out and, almost casually, grabbed hold of Motomu's wrist, halting the attack well before it could land. The Ninja looked grudgingly impressed that the old butler had actually had the gall to try and attack him.

"Now, now, none of that," Kyodai Ken chided. "You're coming with me. Behave, and you might even survive this experience."

"Oh, joy."

"What do you want with me?" Jun Godo asked Batgirl. "I'm nobody special."

"On the contrary," Batgirl said. "I've done some research on you. You're a lieutenant on the T3PD, but you used to be a captain. According to your file, you were demoted for 'willful insubordination' but doesn't tell the whole story, does it?"

Godo scowled. "Hell no," he replied, absently reaching into one of his pockets and withdrawing a pack of cigarettes.

"What was the whole story?" Batgirl asked.

A small, wry grin formed on Godo's face as he lit his cigarette with a cheap lighter and took a drag. "I get the feeling you already know, but if you want me to tell you, okay," he said. "A dead body was found in the slums, and we got called in. Things didn't look right from the start, but we were getting pressured to just call it gang violence and move on."

"But you didn't," Batgirl said.

"No, I didn't," Godo agreed. "I pursued it, and found out that the body had been moved to the slums to make it _look_ like gang violence or something like that. The guy was a journalist who'd been making a habit of snooping into NERV's affairs. And the killer was a member of NERV's Section Two. NERV swore up and down that he acted independently, but nobody really bought it, even though it was impossible to prove otherwise."

"Then after all the media hype died, you were demoted for your efforts," Batgirl finished.

"That's about the size of it," Godo said. "I still don't see how that makes me anybody special."

"You're a cop with integrity and willing to stand up to even NERV," Batgirl replied. "That's not exactly common in Tokyo-3."

Godo grunted. "True, unfortunately," he said. "I don't understand why that makes you want to speak with me, though."

"Because, I can be certain that you won't just throw this in the trash," she said, producing a large manila envelope and holding it out to him.

Godo accepted the thing and looked inside. Within was an audio cassette tape and some papers. His eyes widened as he studied the latter.

"This belongs to Cobblepot, that gaijin yakuza leader," Godo said in amazement.

"Yes," Batgirl nodded. "You can't exactly hope to lock him up with that, but it should be enough to get your foot into the door. Cobblepot keeps a second front in the slums, a bar called the Arctic Fish. Searching that place may be more useful than searching the Iceberg Lounge."

"I'll keep that in mind," Godo said. "What's on the tape?"

"Recordings of conversations made by some of the Iceberg Lounge's patrons," Batgirl answered. "I've edited out all the parts that don't involve discussion of illegal activities."

"You realize that you're asking me to take on some of the most powerful people in the city?" Godo asked, flicking ashes from the tip of his cigarette.

"I also realize that you'll do it, because you're an idealist who believes in justice," Batgirl replied.

Godo smiled wryly. "This relationship's going to be bad for my career, isn't it?"

"Probably," Batgirl frankly admitted.

"Wonderful," Godo said, taking another puff off his cigarette and looking into the night sky. "You know, this whole city, hell, this whole world, is messed up when a cop has to pick between doing what's good for his career and actually doing the 'protect and serve' bit. But I guess I don't need to tell you about what has to be sacrificed to keep a clear conscience."

There was no response. Godo turned back to look at Batgirl, only to find that she had seemingly disappeared. He sighed, dropped his cigarette to the ground, and crushed it beneath the heel of his shoe.

"I really hope she doesn't make a habit of doing that," he muttered before heading back inside his home to better examine the things the caped crusader had just given him.

* * *

Confident that Jun Godo would do his best to make use of the evidence that she'd given him (and secure in the knowledge that even if he didn't, she had copies of everything), Batgirl quickly made her way back to her waiting motorcycle.

She could tell immediately that someone had found it and had tried to steal it; the scorch marks on the sidewalk nearby were the obvious indicators that the bike's aggressive anti-theft system had seen use. Fortunately, no one with the brains to thwart the device had happened upon her ride yet, and the motorcycle was still in pristine condition and very much still present.

Deactivating the security device, she climbed onto the Batcycle and was soon speeding through the dark streets of Tokyo-3.

"Well, Motomu," she said, tapping the side of her cowl to activate the radio in it, "Godo responded about as I had expected. Hopefully, Cobblepot won't manage to throw too much sand into the gears of the legal system."

Only silence answered her, and Batgirl frowned. She knew that Motomu wasn't always waiting in the Batcave whenever she went out; the man had other things to do, but he'd asked her to inform him how the meeting with the police lieutenant went. And he'd been even more overbearing than usual since her fight with Kyodai Ken.

Still, it was probably nothing, she told herself. Most likely, the man had left the cave to do some other work in the mansion. Perhaps he'd just gone to the bathroom.

And yet something felt wrong to her, causing anxiety to churn in her gut.

_Going back will cost you at least a half an hour, probably forty-five minutes,_ she thought. _That's time I could be making a difference on the streets._

She knew that if she returned home to the mansion and found her butler and guardian was safe and sound there, he would be quietly teasing her about her hasty return to the manor for weeks. It would be months before she could chide him about worrying about her too much without hearing about how she'd zipped home because he hadn't immediately responded.

Not only that, but she knew that if it turned out to be nothing, and she opened up the newspaper tomorrow morning to discover that someone had been the victim of a violent crime, she would torture herself for weeks about it, wondering if she could have prevented it.

But this was Motomu, and she had a _bad_ feeling. She turned her bike in the direction of Yamagishi Manor and gunned it, the motor releasing a muffled roar as she picked up speed.

"Motomu?" she tried to contact him via her radio again. "Answer me."

Repeated hails failed to get any response from her butler, and Batgirl grew more and more certain that she'd made the right decision as she drew nearer to her not so modest home.

Tearing down the secret tunnel that led to the Batcave at reckless speeds, the caped crusader came to an abrupt stop inside her hidden enclave and practically leapt off her motorcycle. Pulling off her cowl, she ran up the stairs that led to the non-secret parts of the mansion.

_If it turns out he was fine and was just listening to that iPod I bought him last Christmas…_

It was calming to picture such a thing, but Mayumi knew by now that it was just a fantasy. Something was seriously wrong.

"Motomu!" she called. "Motomu!"

There was no answer. Checking the mansion's security system, Mayumi found it had been disabled and swore. Motomu never would have just turned it off.

She found it on the table of the mansion's main dining room; it was a note, that looked, from afar, like a perfectly innocuous piece of paper. Mayumi stalked across the great dining hall and snatched it up, glaring at the page so hard as she read that an onlooker would not have been surprised if it had spontaneously burst into flame.

_Dear Little Rich Girl,_ the letter read, _I have kidnapped your guardian, and I will kill him at sunrise if you do not come and face me. I'll be waiting for you on top of Yoshimata Tower, if you wish to seek me out. Choose wisely. Signed, the Ninja._

"'Choose wisely,'" Mayumi growled in disgust as she grasped the hidden meaning of her enemy's words.

Kyodai was so confident that he would kill her if he arrived that he was presenting his challenge to her as though it was choice between her life or her butler's life.

"Arrogant _bastard_," Mayumi whispered to herself as she headed back to the cave, pulling on her cowl as she went. "I'll wipe that smug look off your face yet."

* * *

"Comfortable, old man?" Kyodai Ken asked Motomu.

The butler almost laughed in response to the question. He was seated atop a skyscraper, with his wrists and ankles bound so tightly that his hands and feet had long since gone numb. The cold winds at this elevation were whipping at him mercilessly, and he was leaning against a pipe that protruded from the roof of the building and was covered in condensation.

It also didn't help his comfort that he was a hostage, and a hostage who would be executed if his charge didn't arrive before sunrise.

"I can't say that I am," he answered once he had composed himself.

"Ah, well, it cannot be helped," the Ninja replied. "Do you believe she will come for you, old man?"

"Mayumi-san would never even consider remaining idle at a time like this," Motomu said with certainty.

"You're confident she will trade her young life for yours, old man," Kyodai Ken commented.

"Not as confident as you are that you'll manage to kill her," Motomu countered.

Kyodai Ken grunted. "My confidence is well earned," he said. "The little girl and I fought over a hundred times while we were at Yoru's dojo. She didn't come close to winning even once."

The butler just smiled as though the Ninja had said something very naïve and foolish, and Kyodai Ken scowled.

"What?" the younger man demanded.

"You may have sparred with her often, but you don't know her as well as I do," Motomu said. "Do you believe it's easy for a teenage girl with no superhuman abilities—even one with an expensive arsenal and training like Mayumi-san's—to be Batgirl? Mayumi-san would never be successful if she couldn't find ways to routinely do the impossible."

The Ninja was silent for a moment, and Motomu believed that he might have just shaken the man.

Then Kyodai Ken smiled. The Ninja had seen paternal pride shining in the butler's eyes alongside defiance.

"I did pick the right way to lure the little girl out of hiding," he commented, more to himself than to Motomu.

The two of them lapsed into silence for a long moment, with the wind serving as the only noise present.

At least, until the sound of crunching stone drew near enough for them to hear. The two men turned toward the source of the sound just as Batgirl arrived on the roof.

"Retract," she commanded softly, and claws in his gloves that had made scaling the side of the building possible disappeared.

"So, you've come, as I knew you would," Kyodai Ken said, drawing his sword, "little girl."

The dark lady did not respond. A batarang seemed to appear between her fingers from nowhere, and she hurled it at the Ninja with practiced ease. The black weapon whistled as it flew through the air, spinning wildly as it went.

With a small grunt of contempt, Kyodai Ken swung his sword, intending to splice the unusual shuriken in two.

It would have worked, too, if the batarang was just a simple piece of sharpened metal. However, the moment his razor sharp katana impacted with the bat-shaped device, there was a small explosion that instantly surrounded the Ninja with a small cloud of smoke.

"Ah!" Kyodai Ken released a cry of surprise and indignation, the sword flying out of his grip and falling to the ground with a clatter.

"Stealth mode!" Batgirl said, even as she charged forward.

Immediately, her suit's most advanced feature activated, and the caped crusader all but vanished from sight. She lashed out with her leg, sweeping Kyodai Ken's feet out from under him before the smoke had even cleared. The Ninja collapsed to the ground but was on his feet again in an instant.

Just in time for Batgirl's armored fist to slam into his jaw. Agony blossomed in the Ninja's mind as he felt one of his teeth parting ways with the rest of his head.

He welcomed the pain; it helped him to focus.

Batgirl's stealth suit didn't make her truly invisible; even in the dark, he could still see her as a crude shape before him. The Ninja fired a series of punches at his enemy, many of which impacted upon their target.

However, he couldn't properly aim his attacks, and most of the punches which landed were glancing blows that barely slowed Batgirl down.

He felt a small but strong hand clamp down on his wrist, and before he could react, the Ninja found himself sprawled out on his back. He grunted in pain and general displeasure as he felt his spine absorbing the force of the impact with the ground.

But he had not been Yoru Sensei's star pupil for nothing. Not allowing the pain to faze him, he immediately kicked hard with one of his legs, and fortune was with him; he struck her directly in the chest, causing her to stagger backwards and grunt as the wind was knocked from her lungs.

The Ninja leapt to his feet, eager to capitalize on this small victory. He advanced on Batgirl's shimmering, transparent form, intent on ending this farce before it could go any further.

"Sayonara, little girl," he said.

The Ninja surged forward, the index and middle fingers of his right hand extended. Seeing this, Batgirl knew there was only one attack this could possibly be: the Big Sleep Touch, the instant death technique.

Even with her stealth suit activated, Kyodai could still sense the fear in her stance, could practically smell it in the very air. She'd spoken to Yoru Sensei, as he'd expected she would, and she knew what he could do. She knew she was about to die.

The tips of his fingers struck her in the chest, right between her breasts. Batgirl released a great, shuddering gasp and for a moment stood completely still. Though her suit's stealth feature was still active, the Ninja could feel her horrified gaze upon him.

Then she collapsed limply to the ground and was still.

"Be honored, little girl," the Ninja said. "I do not use that on everyone. Only those who have managed to truly annoy me."

"You _monster_," Motomu spoke up, his voice suddenly thick with emotion.

"I'm no monster, Chogei-san," the Ninja said nonchalantly. "I'm just a man doing a job. It's not my fault the little girl decided to bite off more than she could chew, and got the both of you killed."

"Both of us?" Motomu said. "But you said…"

"Forgive me, Chogei-san, but you've just seen too much," the Ninja said, retrieving his katana and appraising it.

He had dropped it when Batgirl's exploding batarang had gone off, and the damage that had been done to the once pristine blade was easy to see. The katana was no longer the exceptional weapon it had once been, and it never would be again.

However, it would be sufficient to end the butler's life.

"I really do regret that you got caught up in this old man," the Ninja said as he approached Motomu.

The butler just glared coldly at the Ninja. Kyodai Ken raised his damaged katana, and moonlight glinted off the few parts of the weapon that still retained a shine. In the back of his mind, the Ninja was grudgingly impressed at how stoically the old man was facing his demise.

Then there was a small _pfft!_ of compressed air being rapidly released from behind him. A grappling hook attached to a strong cable wrapped itself around his legs, and the Ninja turned just soon enough to see Batgirl, with her suit's stealth function still active, pull back hard on the cord.

The Ninja immediately fell face first to the ground, the broken katana flying from his grip as he went. The assassin growled with anger as he quickly turned himself around so he laying on his back rather than his front. With a flick of his wrist, a shuriken had appeared in his hand, and he used the weapon's sharp edge to cut the rope that held him and free himself before the dark lady had closed the distance between them.

"I'm surprised at you," he said, just barely managing to parry most of the flurry of punches she directed at him. "I wouldn't have expected you to stoop to tricks and gadgetry. I thought you wanted to _beat_ me."

"When you kidnapped Motomu, you made me rearrange my priorities," Batgirl said, even as she withdrew something from her utility belt.

The Ninja realized what the small device the nearly invisible girl had clasped in her hand was a moment too late. He tried to pull back, but she jabbed the taser into his abdomen and pressed the button to activate the device.

Kyodai Ken screamed as the raw voltage was pumped directly into his frame. Batgirl held her small taser against him for several seconds more than was strictly necessary, wanting to make damn sure that the attack had the intended result.

Then she turned the taser off, and Kyodai Ken collapsed to the ground, his body trembling as his muscles underwent a series of involuntary spasms.

"And for the record," Batgirl said as she fastened a pair of handcuffs on his wrists, "I _did_ beat you, just not the way I wanted to."

Leaving Kyodai Ken's supine form, Batgirl went to Motomu and quickly freed him from his bonds. "Are you all right, old friend?"

"I fear that being exposed to the elements in this fashion will give me a dreadful cold," the butler said, rubbing his hands and feet in an attempt to speed the return of circulation, "but otherwise I am quite fine."

"Good," Batgirl said. "Can you see to your own return to the manor, or should I call a taxi for you? I can't exactly take you back with me on the Batcycle."

"I'm quite capable of securing my own transportation, Mayumi-san," he said. "But I…Mayumi-san!"

She turned to see that, to her amazement, Kyodai Ken was already getting to his feet. The Ninja had not managed to free his hands from the cuffs she put on him, and he looked so shaky that he probably couldn't have won a match against the butler at the moment, let alone the bat.

But he was up.

"This isn't over, little girl," he pledged, and the caped crusader could see that he had managed to extract a small pouch he'd had on him, despite his bound hands.

"What—?"

"Poison," he answered, and threw the pouch as hard as he could, sending it off the side of the building.

The caped crusader hesitated for a split second. Kyodai Ken was probably lying about the pouch containing poison. More likely, it was a smoke bomb, which was found in a ninja's arsenal far more often.

But if he was lying, and the pouch struck the ground and broke…

With a softly muttered curse, she turned and ran after the potentially deadly pouch, leaping off the side of the building. Angling her body so that she suffered as little drag as possible, she went hurtling through the air after her target, her black cape billowing out after her.

The speed of her descent was tremendous, and a different, less focused individual might have enjoyed the mad flight, might even have laughed in crazed delight.

Batgirl just kept her gaze focused on the pouch with laser-like focus, a distant part of her mind calculating how fast she was probably falling. The ground was approaching her with considerable speed, and she still wasn't within reach of her target. The fraction of a second she'd needed to decide to do this had cost her, and she chided herself for it.

Her fingers brushed against the pouch. She had almost reached it, but she was dangerously close to crashing into the street as well. A few people on the street were pointing up at the fast, dark shape moving across the night sky.

But she had _not_ abandoned her opportunity to capture the Ninja just so she could fail at this. Ignoring the way her instincts were screaming at her to give it up and worry about her own preservation, she reached out one more time.

And snagged the pouch.

Her target in hand, Batgirl held out her free arm and pushed a button on her wrist. A grappling hook burst out of the forearm of her suit and fastened itself to a nearby building. The slack in the rope ran out in seconds.

And then inertia kicked in. A person who trained less rigorously than the dark lady would have torn a muscle. Batgirl escaped without any serious injury, but the pain caused tears of agony to spring to her eyes, and she knew she would be feeling that tomorrow.

However, the cable held, and Batgirl was able to swing onto the rooftop of a nearby building. After checking to make sure that the pouch was still quite intact and free of leaks, she looked up at the skyscraper she had so abruptly left. She had no immediate fears for her butler; bound by handcuffs and recovering from a taser shock, the Ninja wouldn't be able to defeat Motomu, and would be concerned only with making his exit. Unfortunately, he'd probably succeed. Ninjas tended to be rather good at that sort of thing, and there was no way she could return to the skyscraper in time to stop him.

Kyodai Ken had escaped.

* * *

"Now, now, Mayumi-san, you couldn't have expected Kyodai Ken to recover from that taser shock so quickly," Motomu said some time later, after they had both returned to Yamagishi Manor. "Whatever else one might say about him, there is no debating that the Ninja possesses a truly remarkable constitution."

"I could have just called his damn bluff," she grumbled, her tests having confirmed her suspicion that the contents of the pouch Kyodai Ken had tossed off the side of the building hadn't been dangerous.

"You know you conscience never would have permitted you to do that," Motomu said.

"I should have taken two seconds to slap a pair of handcuffs on his ankles, too," Mayumi continued to chastise herself.

"Do you really believe that would have impeded a man like Kyodai Ken very much?" Motomu asked.

"It might have," Mayumi said stubbornly.

Motomu sighed. "As you say, Mayumi-san," he relented. "By the way…"

"Yes?"

"I must ask, Mayumi-san," Motomu said, "how did you escape death when Kyodai Ken administered his 'Big Sleep Touch'?"

Mayumi looked up at him, surprised.

"He told me of it while we were waiting for you," Motomu answered the question in her eyes.

"Ah," Mayumi said. "Well, to put it simply, he missed. As I'd suspected, a technique like that requires an extremely high degree of precision, and that was impossible for Kyodai Ken when he couldn't see me properly."

Motomu frowned. "Mayumi-san, did you _allow_ Kyodai Ken to administer the Touch?"

"It was a calculated risk," Mayumi admitted reluctantly. "As I said, I was fairly certain it wouldn't work, and in any case, you know that the suit is programmed to resuscitate me if it detects that my heart's stopped."

"Mayumi-san…"

"I needed the element of surprise to regain the upper hand in that battle," Mayumi said firmly.

Motomu just sighed. "So what now?"

"Well, the first thing I'm going to do is have the manor's security system upgraded so he can't sneak in here again," Mayumi said.

"You know what I mean, Mayumi-san," Motomu said. "What if he exposes your identity? And even if he doesn't, what will you do the next time you face him?"

"He won't expose me," Mayumi said. "His pride will demand that he beat me by killing me in combat, not by making Batgirl's identity public knowledge. Especially after what happened tonight. He'll want to avenge this defeat personally."

"And the other matter?" Motomu asked delicately.

"I'm not going to try giving him a fair fight again," Mayumi replied.

She still would like to defeat him in such a battle, but the events of that evening had made her realize how foolishly prideful that desire was. She couldn't pursue her mission any longer if she was dead, and if fear of the Batgirl suppressed crime, the news of her demise would doubtlessly spur it to new heights. And of course, her parents' killer would go forever unpunished.

Then there was the effect her death would have on those around her to consider. Motomu would no doubt be hurt, as would Shinji.

Her brow furrowed at that last thought, as she briefly wondered why she was concerned with Shinji. Then she shrugged it off; it had, after all, always been her goal to cause the EVA pilot as little pain as possible while she did what she had to do.

"I'm proud of you, Mayumi-san," Motomu said, smiling warmly.

"Thank you," she replied, trying not to show just how much that meant to her. "Now you should probably get into bed if you want to have any chance of avoiding that cold you're sure your stay on top of that building put you at risk for."

"As you say, Mayumi-san," Motomu agreed. "Good night, and do try to get some sleep tonight."

"Yes, Motomu," Mayumi said.

The butler left the room, and the lady of the manor was all alone. In a moment, she would head back to the cave and don the mantle of Batgirl once more; there were still a few hours of night left that she could use. However, for a brief time, she simply stared at one of the darkened windows nearby.

The Ninja was still out there, and he would be even more fervent in his pursuit of her demise after the humiliation he had suffered that night.

Her lips quirked upwards. "Bring it on, Kyodai," she whispered, before heading toward the cave.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **This one was sort of weird chapter for me, given how little Shinji, and the Eva elements in general played a part. Except for that bit at the start, this is all about this fic's version of the bat mythos. I really wanted to get the second round between Batgirl and the Ninja before the next Angel showed up. Never fear, though, Shinji will be around a lot more next chapter.

Fans of BTAS series will know this wasn't how it went down. Unlike Mayumi, Bruce _did_ get the satisfaction of beating Kyodai in a straight fight. The idea that a fourteen-year-old girl could defeat a full grown man with the same martial arts training without "cheating" just seemed too unrealistic to me.

And that's about all I have to say, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

Rejected Hero-Mayumi Edition (guest omake)

The scene is that of a small bedroom in Central America. It is well-lit, it is middle-class and it is stocked full of books: comics books, RPG sourcebooks and DVDs. It is the typical home of a geek, and one proud to be it. In front of a laptop there is a man, with glasses, dark hair, and regular features. He looks to the Fourth Wall and says:

"Hello, there. My name is Marco Salazar Matamoros, handle name: marcoasalazarm. Yeah, it's…. not very original, sorry about that. I am the guy with the DeviantArt account that Mike mentions on his profile is the sort-of man to blame about the SWOE2-verse to exist (and for *that*, well, I suppose that Mike has done a damn good job), and I have also been his pre-reader for some time.

The reason for this chapter to be so late is entirely my fault, so Mike is not to blame. Real Life-mea culpa.

However… in the time that I have been pre-reading his chapter I have been thinking… I mean, have you guys thought a little about what other superheroes or heroines the Evangelion female cast would be? I suppose you guys have your own ideas, many of them still being Marvel or DC characters-*but* there is one that I wanted to show you. Just an exercise in thought."

Marco looks back towards the entry to the room and says: "Mayumi, can you come here a moment?"

The Yamagishi teen walks into the room and stands in front of Marco, and says: "Yeah, what is it?"

"Oh, nothing. Just that… well, you saw that Asuka got a few Omakes where Mike shown the other supers she could have been?"

Mayumi nodded.

"Something similar, here."

Mayumi blanched, and then shook a little-in rage or fear, it was hard to say "Don't make me shove an exploding Batarang up your…", she started to mutter.

"Come *on*, Mayumi. I swear to you right now, it will *not* be a dumb superhero. As a matter of fact, it will be one of the best ever. This super… he is one of the *first* ever. Without him, heck, Batman as we know him today would *not* exist."

"Really?", Mayumi said.

"Really. Cross my heart.", said Marco, passing her a small box. "Here's the costume."

Mayumi took the box and looked into it, then looked at Marco, suspicion in her eyes.

"Cross my heart. You can change outside.", he said. Mayumi walked out of the room for a moment.

"Now, the box I just gave her?", Marco said towards the Fourth Wall. "It contains the costume of a hero that nowadays has actually pretty little following in the States-well, compared to, say, Wolverine or the Bat-*but* is still very wildly followed overseas, specially Scandinavia…"

"Scandinavia?", Mayumi said from outside the room.

"Yeah… Scandinavia. And Australia, too.", Marco said towards Mayumi. "As well, this is the first costumed superhero ever… well, at least that used Spandex, and that had a mask with no visible eyes. He also created the whole thing about the criminal mind being a cowardly and superstitious lot, who would see a symbol and tremble. I guess some of you guys have seen the guy in newspaper strips when you were a kid, or saw those animated shows…. You know, 'Defenders of the Earth', that one with the Peter Chung designs…"

"Marco? I'm ready.", Mayumi said from outside.

"*Okay*, then… so… here it is. Created by Lee Falk in 1936, the Guardian of the Eastern Dark, The Ghost Who Walks, The One Who Cannot Die…"

"Will you quit with the sobriquets and introduce me already?", said Mayumi from outside the room. "Or I swear, I'll shoot one of these guns on your feet."

Marco looked outside the room and sighed. "Ladies and gentlemen, The Phantom."

Mayumi walked back into the room, wearing an all-purple spandex suit that covered all of her, with dark boots, a wide belt with a skull on the front and gun holsters on each side, and a domino mask that didn't show her eyes. It almost looked like it had been spray-painted on her.

"And how exactly is The Phantom 'One Who Cannot Die'?", Mayumi said, plucking at her sleeves. "This thing doesn't has any armor quality."

"For one… The Phantom is supposed to be a badass normal of the highest quality, with skill in combat, stealth and endurance that is plainly unmatched."

"Like Batman.", said Mayumi.

"Yeah, and like the Bat, the Phantom knows about symbolism. Each member of his family throughout at least 400 years has taken that mantle when the previous Phantom died, never showing to the rest of the world their face upon swearing the Oath of the Skull, and the rest of the world thinking because of it that The Phantom is immortal. To evildoers everywhere, The Phantom is the ultimate boogeyman."

"But if it is a family tradition, then my parents would have known about this, and it kind of clashes with... well, I don't know… *everything* Mike set already?", Mayumi said.

"Okay, so some work would be required. But there *had* been people who had stepped into The Phantom's shoes when it was required-some of them women. And, well… the idea of Gendo thinking he's being hounded by a crime-fighting immortal is surely interesting."

It was silent for a while and then Marco added: "You know it is part of that Oath is to keep the family line going so there are other Phantoms in the future?"

THIS made Mayumi interested. "Tell me more, then."

Marco looked again towards the Fourth Wall and said: "Well, at least it went well."

"Although because of the lateness, once you're over with the briefing, I will tie you up and hang you upside-down from a streetlight.", added Mayumi.

"..or not.", muttered Marco, gulping slightly.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Six:** Opportunities

Batgirl hated the silence.

Most people would have been surprised to learn as much, especially if they knew just how extensively the caped crusader had trained to move about without making a sound when she had to. However, it was true. Batgirl liked it quite a lot when _others_ made noise. That noise could draw the attention of people she didn't want to see her, and it could also help to reveal the location of her enemies.

The dark building she was in was a silent as a tomb. She knew that Kyodai Ken was within it, though; she had seen him enter the building, but the Ninja wasn't making the slightest sound. If the Dark Lady hadn't known better, she would have believed he wasn't even breathing, so profound was the silence.

She was tempted to activate her cowl's infra-red vision, but she was afraid that uttering the necessary voice command would give her position away to her enemy. So instead she merely scanned the interior of the dilapidated old structure, searching for any hint of movement or sign of that red sash the Ninja made a point of always wearing, probably out of arrogance.

She almost missed him. In the minimal moonlight which managed to creep through the broken windows of the condemned building, his mostly-black clothing blended in perfectly. She would have dismissed what she saw as the shifting of shadows if she had been one iota less attentive, and even so, she had to stare at Kyodai for several seconds before she was certain that she was indeed looking right at him.

The Ninja was creeping across the room, using the various pieces of moldy, abandoned furniture that were strewn about as cover. He seemed to be heading toward one of the windows.

Batgirl's eyes narrowed. It was possible that whatever plan he'd had in mind when he'd ducked into the old building had gone pear-shaped somehow, and that the Ninja was just attempting to make his escape, but she was too wary to just assume as much. Still, she began to creep toward him, taking great care to be as silent as he was.

The minutes dragged on as the two enemies matched stealth skills. Batgirl could feel her heart pounding beneath her ribs, and she knew exactly why. One wrong move, or just one bit of bad luck—such as the floorboards creaking beneath her feet—and the element of surprise would be lost to her.

And much as she hated it, she still acknowledged the fact that she needed every advantage she could get over the Ninja. If she could just get into position to ambush him…

In the tomb-like silence, the sound that came next seemed as loud as a cannon shot, and nearly as frightening.

"I see you, little girl," the Ninja taunted.

Batgirl's response was immediate; the black-clad girl tossed several capsules in the Ninja's direction, and they burst the moment they struck the floor, spraying a potent sleeping gas in all directions. This tactic wouldn't have worked on the rooftop where she had encountered Kyodai several nights ago; the gas would have just dispersed and been blown away by the wind, but in the enclosed room, the Ninja would be overwhelmed in moments.

Unfortunately for her, Kyodai didn't plan on being around for that long. The Ninja immediately began to dash for the window, but not before she saw the weak light in the room glint off something metal in his hand. Her eyes widened behind the black lenses in her cowl; the caped crusader knew instantly what Kyodai held.

It was a remote control. The Ninja pushed a button, and the multiple charges which he had placed in key points within the building exploded. The already weakened structure instantly started to collapse, and the Dark Lady knew she had only seconds to get out of the building before she was crushed beneath the rubble.

Of course, the most convenient escape route was the very window that Kyodai Ken was currently leaping through, but Batgirl knew better than that. Using _that_ exit would deliver her right into her enemy's hands, and, soon after that, Death's.

So she instead sprinted toward another window, even as the very floor she ran upon threatened to collapse beneath her feet. Flames from the explosions lapped at her black-clad form. Her Batsuit was completely fireproof and protected her from being burned, but it could do nothing to shield her from the awful blast of heat.

Batgirl didn't bother to look at the area outside the window before she leaped out, knowing that she had no time to spare for even this vital precaution. She had to survey her surroundings as she sailed through the air, her cape billowing out after her in the wind.

Her gaze swept about, instantly taking a measure of where she was. Then her hand went down to her utility belt, grabbed the grappling gun there, aimed, and fired. The hook caught on the side of a nearby building, and the cord quickly drew taut, allowing her to go swinging through the air rather the falling to the ground.

One young man who'd been walking down the street when the building exploded happened to notice the black-clad young woman bursting out of the window and then making it to the safety of a nearby rooftop before disappearing from his line of view. He would later tell his friends that it was the most incredible thing he'd ever seen and swear that Batgirl couldn't possibly be human.

The next day, Mayumi would tell Motomu that she had had to rush more than she would have liked, but that it had been no big deal.

In the present, Batgirl quickly withdrew into the shadows and resisted the urge to swear. She and the Ninja had been playing this game of cat and mouse for days, and she was getting powerfully sick of it.

_At least he used an _abandoned _building this time,_ she thought darkly as she recalled how she had very nearly gotten herself killed while preventing innocents from becoming collateral damage from Kyodai's previous booby trap.

She had been faring better against the Ninja since she'd decided to stop trying to beat him in a fight on even ground, but her old nemesis hadn't been fighting fair to begin with. And _he_ didn't care if innocent people were killed as result of his little traps. It gave him an edge, much as she hated to admit it.

Batgirl surveyed the area for some time, making sure to keep to the shadows and avoid the eyes of the police who soon arrived to keep people away from the destroyed building. With her enemy's trap having been sprung without success, she now very much wanted a fight with him. However, the Ninja had already made good with his escape, and there was no trace of him to be found.

She was unsurprised. Kyodai had no doubt scampered off somewhere to prepare a new trap or ambush.

_I suppose it's just as well that we're done for the night,_ she thought, trying to temper the seething anger inside of her.

Easy though it would have been to allow her ongoing conflict with the Ninja to become all consuming, Batgirl knew that she had other pots on the stove she couldn't just ignore. And one of them could use checking right about now.

* * *

Jun Godo didn't flinch when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye while he was taking out the trash, but it was a close thing. Indeed, his first impulse had been to shriek when he'd spotted the dark shape in the shadows.

"Am I going to have to watch for you every time I go to take out the garbage?" he asked.

_That was good,_ he thought, impressed with himself for not stammering.

"If you'd prefer I could come up to your bedroom window when I want to speak to you," Batgirl replied gruffly.

Godo was honestly uncertain whether she was joking or not. He decided to err on the side of caution. "Ah, no, that's all right," he said.

Batgirl didn't make any response to this. She merely stood there, gazing at him silently. Or at least, he assumed she was gazing at him; it was hard to tell with the soulless, black lenses in her cowl concealing her eyes.

_God damn it,_ Godo thought. He probably had a hundred pounds on this young woman in the black costume, and she was unnerving him. Hell, she was outright _scaring_ him.

And she wasn't doing anything besides stand there and look at him.

"I tried," he said tiredly, knowing exactly why she was staring him down. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a battered pack of cigarettes, shook one out, and lit it. The smoke calmed him. "I really did. Managed to find a judge to give me a search warrant based on the evidence you gave me. I had a team all ready to go, and we were going to raid Cobblepot's place of business. The both of them, in fact. I knew we'd find a _lot_ more than just some uncensored hentai magazines, but we were stopped at the last minute."

"By who?" Batgirl demanded.

"The Commissioner," Godo said tiredly. "Not that there aren't a lot of other people the Penguin has influence over. If that was the case, we'd have a new Commissioner, but as it is, it's more dangerous to be an honest cop in this town than a dirty one."

"How does the Penguin control so many people?" Batgirl asked. "Blackmail, intimidation, or simple bribery? Or some combination of all three?"

Godo took a long drag on his cigarette, and then expelled the smoke through his nostrils. "Just plain old bribery, so far as I've ever heard," he said. "You have to understand, it's hard to stay idealistic in this town when you have to look the other way any time an important member of NERV does something, and it's clear that the slums aren't ever going to be a priority. It makes most of the people on the force more vulnerable to that kind of persuasion. At least, that's what I think."

"I see," was Batgirl's curt response.

"That's it?" Godo asked.

"I'll be in touch," she said, then vanished into the shadows once more, again doing so right in front of his eyes.

Godo briefly considered making some pithy comment to himself about women who dropped in uninvited, then thought the better of it. He dropped his cigarette to the ground, crushed it beneath the heel of his shoe, and then walked back inside his apartment building.

* * *

Motomu Chogei was worried about his young charge. Of course, he was always worried about Mayumi to some extent. What she did with her nights ensured _that_, but there were different levels of worry. And even with her having put her pride away where her conflict with that ruffian Kyodai Ken was concerned, he was still more worried than he was comfortable with.

Mayumi fighting with the Yakuza and common street thugs was something he had become used to, if not exactly happy about. However, Mayumi fighting with the Yakuza and street thugs while simultaneously trying to deal with an assassin trying to kill her _and_ attempting to infiltrate an organization like NERV was quite beyond the pale.

So he was more relieved than usual when the lady of the house pulled her motorcycle into the Batcave that evening.

"Good evening, Mayumi-san," he greeted her.

"Evening, Motomu," she replied as she pulled off her cowl. "You know, if you must insist on waiting up for me, you should probably find a better excuse than dusting the main computer for the thousandth time. Or you could just drop the pretenses altogether."

The butler didn't bother to acknowledge the mild barb. "How was the evening?" he asked.

"Bad," Mayumi replied, heading for the cave's small changing room. "Kyodai escaped from me again, and Godo confirmed all the research I'd done that said the police here are corrupt."

"So what do you intend to do?" Motomu asked.

"In the long run, I'll have to see about cleaning up the T3PD," Mayumi replied. "However, with everything else I have to deal with at the moment, it might just be better if I found some way to work around the corruption in regards to getting the Penguin put away."

The butler was relieved to hear that Mayumi wasn't about to take on another major project in the midst of everything else she was dealing with, but her answer confused him. "'Work around the corruption'?" he asked. "How do you plan on doing that?"

"I'll think of something," she answered as she emerged from her changing room.

Mayumi had discarded the form fitting Batsuit for one of the shapeless dresses she tended to wear when she wasn't being the caped crusader. She looked like a perfectly normal girl.

But she also looked exhausted. There were dark blotches beneath her eyes, her shoulders were slumped, and Motomu could detect a certain sluggishness to her movements. He knew that she wasn't getting much sleep, even by her standards, and he could only imagine how stressful having Kyodai Ken out to get her was.

"Good night, Motomu," she said, heading for the stairs to the mansion above.

"Mayumi-san," he said, causing her to stop and turn.

"Yes?"

"Perhaps you should take the day off tomorrow," he suggested.

She just gave him a look in response to that.

"I meant from school, not… all this," the butler clarified, gesturing around at the cave. "You've been working so hard lately. I think you could use a little rest."

"I present myself to the world as a nerdy bookworm to avoid anyone suspecting that I'm Batgirl. Nerdy bookworms don't often cut school," Mayumi pointed out.

"Even bookworms become ill from time to time," Motomu countered. "I will call you out sick, and you can catch up on your sleep."

Mayumi hesitated for a few moments. Then she nodded. "All right," she said, and resumed her trip up the stairs.

Motomu could only stare at her retreating back in mute shock. He never would have believed that she'd consent to taking a day off so easily. Clearly, Mayumi was even more weary than he'd believed.

He waited a few minutes in the cave, performing a perfunctory check on Mayumi's equipment, even though he knew she always kept it in impeccable condition herself. Mostly he was just killing time.

Once satisfied, Motomu also made his way upstairs, then to Mayumi's room. He tapped lightly on the sliding screen door, but there was no response. Frowning, and sincerely hoping that she wasn't elsewhere in the manor, working on something, he quietly slid the door open and tiptoed inside. He was surprised again at what he found.

Mayumi lay on her bed, fully clothed, in a dead sleep. The ebony haired girl had pulled back the sheets, but it was obvious that she'd passed out before she'd had the chance to draw them over herself.

Asleep, she looked incredibly young—eleven instead of fourteen, Motomu thought—and he couldn't help wonder what one of her foes would think if they could just see Batgirl now.

And, not for the first time, he silently damned the gunman who had slain her parents and taken away her innocence well before its time.

Being careful to make as little noise as possible, even though he suspected that nothing short of an N2 blast would wake her at the moment, he crept over to her. The butler gently removed her glasses, placing them on her bedside table, then he pulled the covers over her.

"Goodnight, Mayumi-san," he whispered, then vacated the room.

* * *

The next day, Shinji found himself staring up at the looming form of Yamagishi Manor for the second time.

Some people say that familiarity breeds contempt, but if that was true, Shinji apparently hadn't become sufficiently familiar with the huge mansion yet. The place still made him feel as small and overwhelmed as ever.

Part of him wished that Hikari hadn't asked him to take Mayumi's homework to her. He was in no mood to go out and be social that day, not after Kensuke had quietly informed him of the reason why Toji had come to school looking so glum that morning.

However, he'd had no idea how to refuse the class rep's request, and in any case, he knew that Mayumi liked to keep quiet about her enormous wealth. If anybody else went to her home and saw how grand it was, the news that the mousey, bespectacled girl was loaded would be all over the school by tomorrow morning.

With a small sigh, he rang the doorbell. Mayumi's butler Motomu opened the door a minute or two later. He looked mildly surprised to see Shinji there.

"Ikari-san?" he asked. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, I came to bring Mayumi her homework," Shinji answered, holding up the printouts.

The Third Child guiltily hoped that the butler would just accept the papers and then disappear into the house so that he could go home, turn on his SDAT, and feel guilty and depressed in peace.

The briefest flicker of a grin passed over the butler's face, too quickly for Shinji to notice. "Of course, please enter, Ikari-san," he said. "I'll take you to her."

Shinji obediently followed Motomu into the plush home, and the butler led him to a room he hadn't seen before. It looked like a living room, with couches and a coffee table and the like, but there was no TV. He supposed that this was probably what was called a sitting room, another of those fancy rooms that no place he'd ever lived in had.

Mayumi herself was curled up on the couch with a book, dressed in pajamas. She had on a pair of baggy gray sweat pants and a dark green shirt several sizes too big for her.

It was, the adolescent male part of Shinji's mind noted, perhaps the most unsexy sleepwear she could have possibly worn.

He quickly squelched the thought, feeling rather appalled at himself for even being able to think about such things with what he'd learned earlier that day, and approached her. "Hello, Mayumi, how are you feeling?" he asked.

"Oh, much better, thank you," she said. "I was feeling really terrible earlier. I was feverish and spent most of the morning in bed, in fact, but I'm doing much better now."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You're all sweaty. You might still have a fever."

"I think I'm over that," she said.

He shrugged. "Well, I brought you your homework," Shinji said, holding out the papers.

"Oh, thank you," Mayumi said, accepting them. "I hope bringing me this didn't keep you from doing anything important."

Shinji shrugged. "Oh, no, I didn't have any plans for today."

"Shinji?" she asked with a slight frown. "Are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine," he lied, cursing himself for having let his gloom show.

Her frown deepened. "Are you sure?" she asked.

Shinji was very tempted to keep pretending that everything was perfectly normal, or to just tell her he didn't want to talk about it.

He knew that if he did that, she wouldn't continue to press him. It just wasn't in her nature. Besides, she had kept a few secrets of her own from him, until he'd happened to find them out when Misato had invited her over for dinner. Even he wouldn't feel all that guilty about keeping a few things from her.

Yet he discovered he was hesitant to just brush her question aside and move on.

Mayumi had quickly come to mean a great deal to him. There were times, in the middle of the night, when he couldn't find sleep and his SDAT failed to distract him enough, that the nasty little voice of his self-doubt would start whispering in his ear. About how no one would tolerate him if not for their own reasons, which had nothing to do with actually wanting to spend time with him. About how Toji would never be his friend if he wasn't guilty about hitting him. About how Misato just considered him a part of her job, a responsibility, or more accurately, a burden.

It had a reason for why almost everyone in his life put up with him, even though they never would under a different set of circumstances.

But that awful whispering voice from the back of his mind always started to stutter when it came to Mayumi. It always felt like a victory to Shinji when it did, and he was very grateful to Mayumi as a result.

And because of that, he found that for perhaps the first time in his life, he wanted to open up to another person.

"During my first battle in EVA, Toji and his sister Mari were outside the shelters," he said. "He was okay, but she was hit by some flying debris after Unit One went berserk. She was badly injured."

"I'm sorry," Mayumi said softly.

"No, it's all right," he said. "You probably would have found out eventually. Toji didn't exactly keep what happened to his sister a secret, and everyone knows I'm an EVA pilot. You wouldn't exactly have to be the world's greatest detective to put the pieces together."

Mayumi nodded. "Still…" she trailed off, then began again. "But, if you don't mind me asking, why is it getting to you today?"

Shinji sighed softly. "For a long time, the doctors thought they could save Mari's legs, and that she'd be able to walk again someday," he said. "But some new tests convinced them it was a lost cause. They had to amputate both her legs last night."

"Oh, Shinji, I'm so sorry," Mayumi said.

"If only I hadn't just panicked during that battle, things might have gone differently," he said quietly, seeming to speak more to himself than to her.

"Shinji…"

With an effort, he pulled himself back to the present, his gaze focusing on her. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't be burdening you with my problems."

"No, Shinji, it's really all right," Mayumi said.

He didn't believe that for a moment. "Well, I'll just go and leave you to your homework," he said. "I'm not very good company right now."

"Of…of course," she stuttered. "Motomu will show you out."

The butler did so, leaving Mayumi alone. However, once he had escorted the Third Child to the door, Motomu returned to where Mayumi was sitting.

"You could have given me more warning that he was here," she said sourly; she had had to sprint from her personal gym to throw on some 'lazy' clothes over her shorts and jogging bra and then get to the sitting room. "Why did you let him in to begin with?"

"Why, Mayumi-san, I merely thought you might like to see him," Motomu said innocently.

"Don't meddle," Mayumi growled, speaking in her full Batgirl voice. "You're free to smirk and believe I have feelings for him all you want, but don't meddle."

"Of course not, Mayumi-san," Motomu said, still acting far too innocent. "However, surely you were not unmoved by the boy's tale."

"Don't eavesdrop, either," Mayumi said with a scowl. "And yes, I certainly do feel sorry for him. In fact…" she trailed off, looking thoughtful.

"Yes?"

"I think I have an idea that will let me kill two birds with one stone," she said. "Remind me that I need to make some phone calls later, Motomu."

"You're going to be mysterious about this, aren't you?" the butler asked, suddenly sounding weary.

Mayumi just gave him a very small smirk, and he knew for sure that leaving his curiosity unsatisfied was to be her punishment for his meddling. Without a word, she left the sitting room. He followed, finding to his surprise that she was headed for the stairs to the Batcave.

"A little early for the cape and cowl, wouldn't you say?" Motomu asked. "It won't be dark for hours."

"I'm not getting ready to go out just yet," Mayumi said, heading for the cave's main computer. "I just need to work on a little project of mine."

"Project?"

"Mmm," Mayumi grunted absently, sitting down before the computer and accessing a much used program on it.

"Oh my," Motomu said at the image which appeared on the screen.

He knew what it was immediately. The accompanying label on the image only confirmed it.

It was a three dimensional map of NERV headquarters, which was slowly rotating in place to allow the viewer to see all of it. It wasn't quite complete; some parts of it had been drawn in red, which, according to the small key at the corner of the screen, meant it was mostly guesswork. Other parts were completely blank. But Mayumi had still managed to map out a very respectable portion of the secret base, easily more than half.

"How on Earth did you manage to make this?" Motomu asked.

"Much of it came from that map I lifted from Katsuragi, when she invited me to dinner at her apartment," Mayumi said. "Shinji inadvertently dropped a few details about the base's layout here and there on the rare occasion he spoke about his experiences at NERV with me. But most of it came from these."

She held out a plastic case to him, and Motomu took it. At first he thought it was empty, save for some protective foam, but when he squinted, he was able to see them. They were some sort of tiny microchips.

He looked at her questioningly.

"A new invention from Yamagishi Micronics," Mayumi answered. "Not on the market yet, of course. In fact, the company hasn't even applied for a patent yet."

"What do they do?" the butler asked.

"They emit a series of radar pulses, allowing them to create an imprint of their surroundings, then transmit those imprints back to home base, once they're out of range of anything that would detect the signals," Mayumi said. "I've been placing them on Shinji's clothes. Ayanami's and Soryu's, too, when I get the chance. Which unfortunately isn't often. They both go to places he usually doesn't, especially Ayanami."

"I see," Motomu said.

"And, of course, Shinji's arrival here gave the chip he's currently wearing an excellent opportunity to transmit," Mayumi said. "So…"

She typed a few keystrokes onto her keyboard. A moment later, the image was updated. However, the known areas on the map didn't increase in size very much. Indeed, so far as Motomu could see, the only addition was a single room that appeared to be a men's restroom.

Mayumi sighed. "As you can see, he usually sticks to the same few places," she said, crossing her arms. "If the urge to explore the base ever struck him, it passed before I got to Tokyo-3."

"Still, this is…impressive," Motomu said slowly. "Do you feel that you're ready to infiltrate NERV headquarters?" he asked, with more than a touch of anxiety in his voice.

"Getting there," Mayumi answered.

* * *

Shinji's mood wasn't much improved the next day as he walked toward the NERV base along with Asuka and Rei, though he was so thoroughly down in the dumps for a new reason now. He had called his father to ask the man to attend the upcoming parent-teacher meetings, but the Commander of NERV had clearly wanted nothing to do with the whole affair, flatly saying that all such matters were Misato's responsibility.

Not only that, but the strange way the call had ended was gnawing at him. It gave him a bad feeling.

"I don't think he hung up," Shinji said. "It was more like the line just failed."

Asuka made a disgusted sound. "Honestly, do you have to worry so much about every little thing?" she demanded.

"Um, well, I…"

"It's just plain unmanly to obsess over every tiny problem!" the redhead exclaimed.

"I'm sorry," Shinji said.

Asuka sighed gustily. None of the EVA pilots noticed that the traffic lights they passed by on their way to the Geofront access point were out. Indeed, none of them noticed that anything was wrong at all until they reached the big, armored door that kept the people who had no business inside the Geofront from reaching the huge underground cavern.

Rei slid her NERV ID card through the reader located nearby…and nothing happened. Frowning very slightly, she slid her card through again, but still got no results.

Quickly becoming impatient, Asuka decided that Rei clearly wasn't going to get the job done. "Here, let me do it!" she said, shoving the First Child aside and taking out her own card.

She swiped it through the reader repeatedly, far more quickly and violently than the blue haired girl had. However, the doors separating them and the entrance to the Geofront remained closed.

"Urgh! Stupid thing must be broken!" Asuka growled in frustration.

"The machine did not reject either of our cards," Rei observed in her typically quiet voice. "It failed to respond to them. I believe it may be out of power."

"Out of power?" Asuka asked. "How can that even be possible? I thought this city was supposed to have multiple backups."

"It does," Rei said.

Even Asuka looked fazed by this simple but ominous statement, and the First Child's words were allowed to hang in the air for several seconds.

The heavy silence was broken by a loud screeching of tires as a large, white van with no windows came to an abrupt halt nearby. The back doors were thrown open before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop, and a half a dozen men poured out.

Each and every one of them was wearing a white robe with a yellow flame symbol that had rays of light emanating from it.

All three pilots knew _those_ getups only too well. They were worn by the Light of the Divine, a local cult that believed the Angels were God's judgment, and that mankind should just submit to heavenly annihilation. The group regularly picketed the school, protesting the use of the Evangelions.

But it looked they were done with peaceful demonstrations.

The half a dozen men charged toward the Children. Shinji could only stand and watch in horrified shock. Some dim part of his mind noted absently that they were wearing shorter robes than the members of the cult normally did, probably to make it easier for them to move. The rest of his mind was shrieking at him to do _something,_ whether it be fight or flight. However, his legs seemed to have turned into twin pillars of cement that he wouldn't have been able to move if his life depended upon it.

Which, he realized grimly, it probably did.

The cultists were upon them almost as soon as Shinji had completed the thought. The men were apparently unarmed, probably thinking that they didn't need to use weapons in order to abduct a trio of teenagers, especially when they outnumbered the pilots two to one.

Where Asuka and Rei concerned, the cultists turned out to be absolutely wrong. The two girls had both received extensive self-defense training during their time with NERV, and neither was shy about utilizing it. The redhead attacked with particular ferocity, kicking one of the robed men in the crotch with every bit if strength her long, coltish leg had in it. His eyes bugged out and he fell to his knees, his mouth open wide in a soundless scream. The second man who tried to grab the Second Child was elbowed hard in the nose. There was a wet cracking sound, and suddenly blood was spurting.

The man cupped a hand over his ruined nose and howled…something. It was hard to tell what exactly; unsurprisingly, his words came out muffled and badly slurred.

Shinji thought it was probably "You bitch!" but he wouldn't have bet the house on it.

The First Child was much more reserved in her defense of herself than the redhead, utilizing a mixture of the basics of several forms of martial arts, but her methods were barely less effective than those used by the Second Child for it.

The cultists who went for Shinji had it easy in comparison. The Third Child was jolted from his stunned stupor the moment he felt one of them place a hand on him, and he began to resist with a strength fueled by panic. However, his resistance was unfocused, wild thrashing. Despite his best efforts, he was soon overpowered, and the men had him in a good grip.

The sound of a gunshot caused everyone involved in the fight to pause briefly, turning their heads toward the source of the sound. A quartet of men in black suits was running forward, all of them carrying guns. One of them had apparently fired a shot into the air in an attempt to scare off the members of the Light.

They succeeded, to a point.

"Shit!" one of the cultists said. "Let's go!"

"Damn girls aren't cooperating!" one of the other robed men retorted, just before Rei's small fist crashed into his gut, causing the air to leave his lungs in a great whoosh.

"No time for the girls, then! We have the Third! Let's go!"

The cultists beat a hasty retreat from the scene, the two with Shinji practically hurling him into the back of their van. Asuka and Rei tried to stop them, but though the pair of teenage girls might've been able to put up a very respectable resistance to being pulled away, they couldn't stop the half dozen grown men from escaping. Within seconds, the members of the Light of the Divine had the doors to their van closed.

"Go! Go!" one of them shouted,

There was another squeal of tires, this time as the van peeled away. The approaching Section Two agents fired at the vehicle, attempting to shoot out the tires, but they weren't good enough shots to pull off the feat. Moments later, the van had sped around a corner and vanished from sight.

The cult that wanted the Angels to win had escaped with the Third Child.

* * *

Having been driven home by Motomu, Mayumi had arrived at Yamagishi Manor well in advance of the blackout. Once having arrived at her luxurious home, the first thing she had done was turn on her PC (the modest Dell she kept in the little study on the first floor, not the fifth generation supercomputer located in the cave beneath the mansion), and start doing her homework.

With the sort of problems she was juggling, such things often felt like very minor annoyances which weren't worth her attention. However, people would start to realize something was strange if the shy little nerd chronically failed to hand in her assignments on time.

So she told herself that it was all a part of her cover, and reminded herself that if playing the bookworm was occasionally annoying, playing the out-of-control party girl would've been _degrading_.

Besides, it wasn't as if the schoolwork was actually difficult for her. Her own, solo studies had taken her well beyond the junior high school level.

Her musings (and her work on a geometry problem) were rudely interrupted when her PC's screen abruptly went black, the sound of the small fan inside the computer tower falling silent at the same moment.

She tensed, automatically suspecting that Kyodai Ken had dared to violate the sanctity of her home again, and that he'd decided to try and circumvent the security system by cutting the power.

However, within moments, Mayumi could feel the dull rumble of machinery beneath her feet—the backup generator located in the Batcave coming to life—and power was restored to Yamagishi Manor, as evidenced by her PC returning to life and starting to reboot itself. The mansion's alarm did not sound.

Still not at ease again, Mayumi got up and walked over to an intercom in the wall. She stabbed one of the buttons. "Motomu?"  
"Yes, Mayumi-san?" the voice of her butler and guardian replied, which by itself caused a great deal of the tension she was feeling to leave her.

A great deal of it, but not all, not by any means.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, clearly confused. "Why shouldn't I be?"

"We lost power. We're currently running on the backup generator," she said. "It could be nothing, but…meet me in the cave in two minutes."

"As you say, Mayumi-san."

She quickly headed for the entrance to her hidden enclave and was considerably relieved when Motomu arrived only moments after she did. She could tell that her butler thought she was being paranoid without him having to say a word.

She took note of that little fact but ultimately ignored it as she gestured for him to enter the cave first. Once they were both inside, she engaged an extensive series of locks. Between them and the armor plating surrounding the cave, it would take a significant amount of high explosives to breach her enclave now.

"Are you really sure this is necessary, Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked.

"No, I'm not. Who's ever been sure a precaution was actually necessary until after the fact?" she retorted.

He made no response to this, but Mayumi got the feeling he wanted to roll his eyes at it. This, too, she ignored, striding over to the cave's main computer. She quickly began to search the manor for intruders, but the security system had not been tripped. The manor's hidden surveillance cameras picked up nothing, and the motion detectors located in key parts of the huge home assured her that nothing was moving in the floors above.

"All appears to be well," Motomu ventured after a few minutes.

"Then why is that generator still the only thing providing this place with power?" Mayumi replied, not taking her eyes off the computer screen or her fingers off the keyboard.

"Perhaps a circuit tripped?" he suggested.

Now she did bother to turn her gaze away from her computer, just long enough to throw him a quick glare. In a normal home, that would've been quite possible, but Yamagishi Manor's electrical system was more sophisticated than that, and she knew he was aware of that.

"This is no time for levity," she said. "I've been making enemies in this city very quickly. I can't just shrug when the power goes out for no apparent reason."

"As you say, Mayumi-san," Motomu replied.

Events didn't play out quite as either of them expected. Motomu, who had resigned himself to waiting until Mayumi was satisfied the manor wasn't under siege, was pulled from his musing about what to prepare for supper by the raven haired girl's voice.

"Can it be?" she spoke softly to herself.

"Mayumi-san?" he asked.

"It looks like the whole city is undergoing a power outage," she said.

The butler frowned. "That should not be possible," he said. "When I was looking to acquire this residence for you, the real estate agent made a particular point of telling me that the advanced technology used to build this city ensures that it will never suffer a blackout."

"Never say never," she said, with a slightly sardonic twist to her mouth. "However…if there are redundancies built into the power grid to prevent this, then odds are, it would only fail if someone sabotaged it."

"You may be right," Motomu said grimly.

"And the only reason someone would go to the trouble of sabotaging Tokyo-3's power grid is if they wanted to make NERV vulnerable for a little while," she continued. "I'll bet that their headquarters doesn't have power, either."

"Surely NERV headquarters must have their own backups," Motomu said.

"Yes, but anyone good enough to sabotage the city's power grid wouldn't forget about those," Mayumi said. "This could be my chance."

"Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked.

"If the power's out inside of NERV headquarters, that will make infiltrating the place _much_ easier than it normally would be," Mayumi said.

"I daresay it would be," Motomu agreed. "But what would be the point? With their computer down, what could you hope to learn from the excursion?"

"If NERV has even the tiniest bit of power available, they'll use it to keep the MAGI running. Organic computers like that can't be shut off without the grayware suffering serious damage," Mayumi said. "And in any case, if you really want to keep some piece of information secret, you keep it off a hard drive. With luck, I may be able to discover some of NERV's paper files."

Motomu looked very much like he wanted to continue objecting to her plan, but Mayumi was already heading to her small changing room. He sighed resignedly.

"I shall monitor the police radio frequencies," he said. "Surely, the radios inside the city's police cars are still working. Perhaps that will shed some light upon the cause of this blackout."

From inside her changing room, Mayumi made a small noise of acknowledgement. Motomu resisted the urge to sigh again, heading over to a police radio scanner that Mayumi kept inside the cave. It wasn't any different from the kind that a reporter covering the crime beat might use, but it did the job just fine.

Minutes later, Mayumi emerged, clad in the batsuit from the neck down, her cowl clutched in her hand. She was fastening her yellow utility belt around her waist, in as much of a hurry as Motomu had ever seen her.

"Mayumi-san," he spoke.

"What?" she asked, just a tinge of annoyance audible in her voice as she managed to fasten her belt.

"Shinji Ikari has been kidnapped," he said.

"What?" Mayumi exclaimed, her full attention suddenly on the butler.

"Listen," he said, offering her the headset that went with the police scanner.

Mayumi practically snatched the thing out of his hands in her haste to find out what was going on.

"This is car 24, in pursuit of the suspect's van," the clipped, professional voice of a police officer reached her ears as soon as she put the headset on. "I almost—what the hell?" the unmistakable sound of a high speed collision followed.

Mayumi pulled the headset off. "Are you sure that they're chasing Shinji's kidnappers?" she demanded of her butler.

Motomu nodded. "Yes, Mayumi-san," he said. "That much became plain as I listened. The entire city's police force is up in arms, as is NERV's Section Two. However, the two of them appear to be getting in one another's way, and no one has managed to catch up to the perpetrators' vehicle yet. The police believe that the kidnappers are members of the Light of the Divine, a local cult that—"

"I know who the Light of the Divine are, Motomu," Mayumi said as she pulled her cowl on, heading toward her motorcycle.

"What do you intend to do, Mayumi-san?" he asked.

Batgirl didn't answer. At least, not directly. "Stay here in the cave and keep listening to the police communications," she said. "I'm going to need you to guide me to that van. Hopefully the police won't lose it before I get there."

"Yes, Mayumi-san."

* * *

Shinji Ikari was scared. Actually, scared was far too mild a word. Shinji Ikari was _terrified_. Indeed, if not for having been blackmailed by his father into getting into a giant mecha he had no idea how to operate and then immediately pitted against a giant monster, this would have easily been the most terrifying thing that had ever happened to him.

And even with how frightening his life had been since his father had called him to Tokyo-3, being tied up and in the back of a van belonging to a cult that believed he was defying a divine judgment still definitely ranked within the top five, so far as scary moments went.

"I say we just kill him," one of the cultists said.

Shinji's eyes widened.

Another of the men shook his head. "You're thinking too small, Dai," he said. "We have one of the pilots. NERV has to give us whatever we want now."

"What we want is the victory of God's messengers, Eiji," Dai countered. "The death of one of the pilots would serve us better than anything NERV might give us in exchange, unless you think they'd be willing to trade the other pilots for this one."

"You know, they might," a third cultist said thoughtfully. "I've heard he's actually the best pilot. I think he has the most kills."

"Oh, I'm not very good, really," Shinji had no idea what force compelled him to speak. "I'm just lucky. Asuka and Ayanami have much more training than I do."

"He's probably telling the truth there," Dai said. "He _was_ the only one who couldn't fight us off long enough for Section Two to arrive." He directed a pointed glance at the four men who had tried, and failed, to abduct the two female EVA pilots.

"Hey, kills are kills," one of the cultists protested, bristling. "You think NERV won't bend over backwards to save their most successful destroyer of God's messengers?"

"By that logic we should kill him right now and call it a greater success than taking out both the girls," Dai countered.

"Um, guys?" a cultist who had been quiet until now said, glancing out of the tiny window in one of the van's rear doors.

"We have leverage now!" Eiji shouted at Dai. "We finally have a bargaining chip, and you want to kill it!"

"Guys?"

"The police and Section Two are after us!" Dai snapped back. "The only reason they haven't caught us yet is because so many of our fellow believers are out there running interference for us! If they catch us and rescue the boy, then we'll have accomplished nothing!"

"Perhaps, but—"

"GUYS!"

"What?" Dai and Eiji both demanded testily.

"We've got trouble. The bat is after us."

* * *

The caped crusader didn't like going out during the day. Part of this was purely emotional; Batgirl simply felt out of place while the sun was shining.

However, there were many practical reasons why she didn't like being out during business hours. Fewer shadows made it harder for her to hide when necessary, and more light made it easier for her foes to see her for what she was: a girl in a costume. Even worse, there were more people out during the day, which meant more innocent bystanders who could be put in harm's way. Or more witnesses should she be badly defeated or unmasked somehow.

And of course, there were a lot more cars on the road in the day time.

Batgirl's motorcycle let out a load roar that _almost_ managed to drown out the blaring of a nearby car's horn as she weaved through traffic at speeds that made even her sweat.

"What was that?" the voice of Motomu spoke into her ear.

"Nothing," she replied through gritted teeth as she drove between two lanes of traffic and then took a sharp turn, barely managing to keep her bike from falling onto its side as she did. "How close am I?"

"Very, if I'm understanding the police communications correctly," Motomu said. "Take the next left and you should be within sight of the cultists' vehicle."

Batgirl looked forward at the approaching intersection and grimaced beneath her cowl. The traffic light there was, of course, of no use during a city wide power outage, and the loss of it had caused a multi-car pileup where the two roads crossed. No police cars or ambulances had yet arrived, and other cars were simply detouring around the collision in a very sluggish flow of motor vehicles.

The result was that the intersection was so jam packed with cars that not even her motorcycle could hope to speed through it. It looked like she would have to either come to stop and probably lose her chance of catching the cultists' van, or crash into something.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the caped crusader found the third option.

She twisted the accelerator, causing her bike's engine to release a loud roar, and shifted her weight, causing the front tire to come off the street, even as she turned toward avoid the curb to pileup. At just the right moment, she brought her front tire down onto the sidewalk, grimacing as it hit the concrete with a _thud_, the impact traveling through her bike and into her frame.

She stayed on the sidewalk just long enough to get past the accident, getting back onto the street as soon as possible. Even so, some poor, hapless bystander felt the need to fling himself to the ground in his efforts to avoid getting run over.

Batgirl had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the overly dramatic display. She would have missed the man by at least five centimeters. Maybe even six.

She fortunately didn't have to pop a wheelie again to get down from the curb without wiping out, but she did have to once more suffer an unpleasant jolt as she returned to the street. She ignored it as she had ignored so much over the course of her career as the caped crusader.

And then she was finally on the same street as the cultists' van. Batgirl spotted it immediately; it was a good distance ahead of her, but it wasn't hard to pick out. The large vehicle looked so austere, so without any distinguishing characteristic, that it actually stood out for it.

The trail of destruction behind it also didn't help the pristine white van look inconspicuous.

Batgirl frown, momentarily puzzled by what she saw. Half the ruined cars that littered the street and its sidewalks were police cars, meaning that they almost certainly hadn't just crashed because of the chaos on the roads. Yet she couldn't figure out how the van could have fended them off without getting so much as a dent itself. No driver was _that_ good.

Then another police car burst out from a side street, siren blaring and lights flashing. It turned sharply, smoke rising from its tires as the driver hurried to catch up to the vehicle with the critically important hostage trapped inside.

It never even got close. A battered old Toyota abruptly swerved into the path of the police car just before it could really begin to accelerate after the van, and the two cars collided instantly, skidding off the street and crashing into the side of a nearby building before they came to a stop.

_Son of a bitch,_ Batgirl thought. _The kidnappers have other cultists running interference for them._

As though this wasn't already challenging enough.

Setting her jaw, Batgirl twisted her bike's accelerator again, and the motorcycle went roaring forward. Just weaving around the multiple accidents that had taken place in the wake of the van was taking a good chunk of the batcycle's agility, as well as her not inconsiderable skill at steering the motorcycle.

The first car that tried to crash into her was easily avoided. It was slow, and the driver waited until too late to make his move. By the time she even realized it was after her, she was already leaving it in the dust.

The second car, however, quickly made itself a problem. The driver of this one took off at the right moment to intercept her, and Batgirl knew that she had only moments in which to act before she crashed into the larger vehicle.

Fortunately, that was all she needed. Daring to take one of her hands off the handlebars of her cycle for an instant, she raised one of her arms and pointed it toward the hostile car.

A device on her forearm spat out a small, bat-shaped disk of metal, which went flying toward the offensive car. The dark lady's aim was true, and the miniature batarang struck one of the car's front tires dead on, puncturing the thick rubber instantly. The driver immediately lost control of the car, and soon impacted with a small delivery truck that was parked on the side of the road.

But the damnable cultists weren't finished yet. No sooner had Batgirl evaded the second car than did a third pull up alongside her.

The man behind the wheel of this vehicle must've either felt that an attempt at crashing into her was either unnecessary or that it was likely to result in failure. Rather than try it, the driver withdrew a pistol and pointed it at her, keeping a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel with his other hand.

He fired. His aim wasn't good, what with his need to split his attention between driving and shooting. However, the bullet still struck the metal frame of the batcycle, bouncing off with a loud _pting!_

She knew she would be fine if he shot her; it would hurt like hell, but her suit would protect her from actually taking more than a nasty bruise as a result. However, she wasn't willing to bet that one of the five shots he had left wouldn't pierce one of her motorcycle's tires, either by the cultist's design or sheer dumb luck.

Reaching into one of her utility belt's many pouches, she withdrew a small pellet. With one perfect throw, she hurled it into the open driver's side window.

The tiny capsule instantly broke open and started spewing thick smoke within the interior of the car. The cultist released a yelp as his vision was quickly obscured by the smoke bomb, and his car began to swerve across the road. Batgirl gunned the engine of her bike, quickly pulling in front of him, just before he went really out of control. He soon crashed into a telephone pole.

And, at last, Batgirl had a mostly clear field to the kidnappers' van. She sped forward toward it as quickly as she dared, weaving through crashed cars and the few intact vehicles that remained between her and her target. It was still as dangerous as hell, but she hadn't come this far just to crash now.

In seconds, she was right behind the van where Shinji was held captive. Now if she could just…

The rear doors of the vehicle abruptly burst open, revealing the robe wearing cultists inside, as well as her victim.

Batgirl forced herself to ignore the strange way that seeing Shinji bound and helpless in the presence of such men caused her heart to leap into her throat unpleasantly.

Three of the cultists drew pistols and started shooting at her. She saw brief flares of sparks as the rounds impacted with the street around her; the cultists were terrible shots.

Still, she knew that if she left them fire on her for long enough, luck would eventually compensate for their utter lack of skill. Time was not on her side here; she needed to act fast.

With one hand she reached down and grabbed hold of the grappling gun that was hooked to her belt, then raised it and fired it.

As always, her aim was straight and true, and the made contact with her target, which in this case was the roof of the van. Several of the cultists let out a yell as it latched onto the empty luggage rack there, all of them knowing that this wasn't a fortunate development for them.

Batgirl acted before any of them could even think about reaching out and trying to unhook the thing. Taking a very brief moment to acknowledge that this was a crazy stunt even by her standards, Batgirl stood up on her motorcycle, clutching her grappling gun with both hands. Of course, without her steering, the batcycle began to wobble dangerously almost at once.

Now time _really _wasn't on her side.

Gritting her teeth, she leapt off the top of her bike, doing everything she could to get as much height as possible. The batcycle almost instantly fell over, crashing to the ground and skidding along the street for several feet, pieces breaking off the expensive motorcycle as it went.

_Guess I'll have to break out my spare bike, _a tiny piece of her mind thought, even while all the rest of it was preoccupied with surviving what she was doing.

She knew the moment that she leapt off the batcycle that it wasn't going to work. As she had feared, with her grappling hook attached to such a low hold, she couldn't get very much extra lift from pulling on the thing. And her jump wasn't going to be enough to get her into the back of the van.

Her feet came down on the street and she jumped immediately before she could start getting dragged along. The considerable speed the van was traveling at caused the slack in her cable to run out just as she had gotten herself airborne again, and Batgirl pulled hard on the rope, propelling herself toward the van.

It wasn't the most graceful looking maneuver she'd ever performed, but this time she was confident that she would reach her destination. She just wished that this could have taken place during the dark night, so her little slip would've been harder to see.

Her boots landed hard on the floor of the van, and a pitched, cramped battle immediately ensued. The trio of cultists who were holding pistols immediately opened fire on her, and from point blank range, even terrible shots like them couldn't miss. The smart material of her batsuit immediately stiffened in response, becoming rigid enough to prevent the bullets from piercing the fabric. However, she couldn't restrain a hiss of pain from escaping past her lips, and she had to grab hold of the side of the wall to keep the force of the impacts from knocking her off her feet and out of the speeding vehicle.

Yet not even gunfire could faze the caped crusader for long. With one hand, she whipped out a small taser from her belt and fired it out at one of the cultists, causing him to let out a high pitched scream and collapse to the floor. An unarmed cultist foolishly attempted to throw himself at her. Batgirl utilized one of her favorite akido throws and flipped him over her shoulder, throwing him right out of the back of the van. He just managed to tuck and roll as he hit the asphalt. She knocked a pistol out of another cultist's hand as he was trying to aim for another shot even as she launched a fierce kick at still another's midsection. He went staggering backwards, gasping for breath, until his back pressed against one of the sides of the van and he allowed himself to slide slowly down alongside it. Two more cultists immediately fell to Batgirl's taser after that.

And that's when it happened. The last member of the Light of the Divine standing was also the last one still clutching a pistol in his grip, and rather than trying to shoot her again, as she would have preferred, he instead gripped the barrel and lashed out at her with the handle. The butt of the gun crashed against her skull, and for a brief moment, all the caped crusader saw was stars. Badly dazed, she staggered dangerously, her footing unsure. A wave of nausea swept over her.

Her vision cleared after only a moment, but being able to see again was almost a curse rather than a gift; the last cultist standing was clearly getting ready to push her out of the still open rear doors, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to dodge; she could still barely stay on her feet as it was.

The cultist lunged, but things didn't transpire from there as either he or the dark lady had expected. The Third Child, who had sat and passively watched the battle this whole time, abruptly decided to act. He managed to stick his bound legs out into the cultist's path, causing the man to trip and fall flat on his face, just barely managing to avoid falling right out of the van.

Batgirl wasn't shy about taking the opportunity this presented her with, reaching down and tasering the man before he could even think about getting up.

Once the last of the cultists was incapacitated, the caped crusader allowed herself a brief moment to try and collect herself. She still felt woozy and nauseous from the blow to head she had taken, and she knew enough to realize that this wasn't a good sign. However, she had no time to relax now. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to ignore her pain and made her way to the Third Child.

Taking a glance at the van's driver, she could easily see sweat rolling down the back of his neck in rivulets. The man was scared and didn't know what to do, but he would soon try _something_, now that his comrades been defeated. He just needed to figure out what that something was.

She had to get out before then.

Not bothering to untie Shinji just yet, she quickly picked him and slung him over her shoulder, saying a silent thank you to the designer of her suit and its strength enhancing capabilities as she did so. Then she went to the very rear of the van and held out her left forearm.

Another grappling hook, smaller than the one Batgirl had used to get to the van in the first place, burst from the forearm of her costume and soon caught on a nearby building. She jumped, and was soon sailing through the air.

The Third Child screamed the entire time, something that did _not_ help the pain that was starting to build in her head. Still, she ignored him, landing lightly on a mercifully wide ledge. The EVA pilot thankfully stopped screaming a moment later.

Sitting him down, she took out a batarang and used the sharp edge to cut the ropes holding him. He let out a sigh of relief as the tight bonds fell off of him, rubbing his wrists and ankles.

"Thank you," he said.

"Let's call it even," she said, resisting the urge to smirk. "Don't spread this around, but you really saved me when you tripped that guy back there."

He blinked in surprise at her, as though stunned anything he'd done had been anything more than a hindrance to her. "Uh…" he stammered, as though trying to find an appropriate response.

"This isn't over yet," she cut him off before he could say anything.

"What do you mean?" he asked fearfully.

"Look," she said, pointing down at the street.

Shinji did, and what he saw caused him to swallow. Multiple cars had pulled up next to the building they were currently on, and men in white robes were emerging from them.

"The level of coordination that the Light of the Divine has displayed suggests that they've been planning this for a very long time, and have probably sunken a lot of resources into this endeavor," she said grimly. "They're not going to give up without a fight."

"We have to get out of here!" Shinji exclaimed.

"Agreed," Batgirl said. "But I had to leave my grappling gun back there, and the one in my suit can only be fired once before I need to reload it at my base of operations. We're going to have to do this another way."

"How?" Shinji asked.

Batgirl ignored him for a moment, surveying the situation. The building they were on was just close enough to the bad part of the city for the owner to have felt compelled to put bars over the windows. She could get them off, of course, but even without any need for stealth, it would take her a little while. And time was of the essence right now.

"Get onto my back," she commanded, reaching a decision.

"What?" he asked.

"Just do it," she growled.

He complied, awkwardly wrapping his arms around her neck. "Is this okay? I'm not choking you or anything, am I?"

"It's fine," she said, even though he was, a little. "Claws."  
The retractable spikes popped out from the tips of her costume's gloves, and Batgirl buried them into the brick of the building. "Hang on," she told Shinji as she started to climb the side of the building.

He did, very tightly, but she ignored any discomfort he caused her as she made her way to the top of the building. Soon, they had reached the roof, and she was relieved to allowed him off of her.

"Now what?" he asked, looking around nervously.

The dark lady pointed at a nearby fire escape, one which hadn't been accessible from the wall she'd climbed up. The Third Child blinked, as though shocked that the mighty Batgirl would resort to such a thing.

_If only he knew how often I've used these things,_ she thought, resisting the urge to smirk.

"Come on," she ordered, taking the lead as she headed toward the fire escape.

He followed her obediently, and the two of them were stood hurrying down the metal steps and ladders. Batgirl soon spotted a white robed man coming up, and was pleasantly surprised that there was only one. Presumably, all the other cultists had chosen to make their way toward her previous position through the inside of the building.

_They might be organized and determined, but they're no soldiers,_ she thought.

Deciding that she didn't want to give her approaching foe any more time to alert his companions than was absolutely necessary, she reached one of the landings of the fire escape, gripped hold of the railing, and then threw herself over the side.

Her stomach flip flopped unpleasantly about inside of her at the motion, and she reluctantly admitted to herself that there was a very real chance the blow to her head had left her with a concussion.

Shinji released a small yelp of surprise and fear for her, one that might've turned into a loud cry if she hadn't managed to grab onto another metal railing two flights down the fire escape and swing herself back to safety mere feet away from the cultist. The Third Child's exclamation abruptly terminated with a brief, strangled noise.

The cultist she had just landed in front of froze, too shocked by the stunt to do anything. Batgirl, not one to waste such an opportunity, kicked him hard in the chest and sent him tumbling down the fire escape's metal steps.

Unfortunately, the man turned out to be a screamer. He howled in pain, surprise, and rage the entire time he was falling. Batgirl grimaced. That would draw all the other cultists to their position for sure.

"Hurry up!" she hissed, looking up at the Third Child. "We need to get out of here!"

Shinji obediently began to run down the fire escape, taking the stairs two at a time. He quickly reached the caped crusader, and the two of them completed the climb down to the ground together.

Unfortunately, half a dozen cultists were already pouring into the alleyway where the fire escape left them.

"Get behind me," Batgirl commanded Shinji, and the Third Child quickly complied.

Reaching into her belt, the caped crusader removed several of the same type of smoke bombs she had thrown into the car of one of the cultists earlier and hurled them at the feet of the oncoming attackers. Instantly, they were wrapped within a black cloud that was rapidly starting to expand.

"Infra-red," she grunted, and her suit complied, allowing her to see the forms of the cultists caught inside the artificial smoke. Then she turned to Shinji. "Come on. I'll lead us through."

She held out her hand to him, and after a moment of hesitation, he took it.

Batgirl told herself that the way her heart fluttered as their fingers became entwined was just some side effect of the concussion.

She ran through the cloud of smoke, easily avoiding most of the cultists and knocking down the few that managed to get into her way, pulling Shinji along with her as she went. They escaped the smoke without incident, and Batgirl deactivated her suit's infra-red vision.

They were safe, but only for a moment. The cultists were clearly out in significant numbers. Batgirl wouldn't have been shocked to discover that every member of the organization was participating in this, or nearly so. She needed to get the EVA pilot away from their current location and fast.

For that, she needed a vehicle. Her gaze swept the street in search for an acceptable one…and reluctantly settled upon a motorcycle parked by the curb.

It wasn't exactly her style. The thing was a big Harley-Davidson that had been painted bright red and had shiny chrome exhaust pipes. It was ostentatious, the exact opposite of the dark lady, and she knew it probably had an engine that could be heard from a mile away.

But it _was_ a motorcycle, and Batgirl was reluctant to take a car. Not because she couldn't drive one, but because she expected to need as much speed and maneuverability as she could get. And there wasn't another motorcycle in sight.

"Come on," she said, suppressing a sigh.

Shinji continued to follow her, but he stopped as she began to quickly hotwire the big motorcycle. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Getting us out of here," she answered tersely. "In case you forgot, my motorcycle was destroyed."

Shinji winced. "I'm sorry—"

"Don't be. I have another one," she said.

"—but you can't just steal that thing," he finished.

"I'll reimburse the owner later," she said, crossing two wires and causing the engine to come to life with a loud roar. She then swung a leg over the bike and sat down on the leather seat. "Now get on."

Shinji hesitated, turning back to look at the alleyway where they had come from. The artificial smoke there was starting to clear, and as the Third Child watched, one of the cultists saw him and Batgirl. The man shouted to his companions, and the robed men were soon running toward them.

That decided him. The Third Child quickly climbed onto the motorcycle behind her. She twisted the accelerator, and they took off down the chaotic streets of Tokyo-3.

* * *

Captain Chiron, Chief of NERV's Section Two, was not having a good day. He was not having as bad a day as the Operations Director, and would laugh his ass off later upon hearing how she'd gotten trapped in an elevator with Special Inspector Kaji for the duration of the power outage.

For the moment though, he was having a very unpleasant time of it. With the base's environmental control systems offline, it had quickly become uncomfortably hot. Chiron wanted to remove his jacket and tie, but he was too damn stubborn to do so.

That, however, was the least of his worries. There was _something_ going on outside in the some city, some major situation that required his attention.

Unfortunately, he had next to no idea what it was about.

The power outage had apparently taken out the local cell phone towers, in addition to the land lines, because he could barely contact any of his agents in the field at all. With the city suffering from a supposedly impossible blackout, the chief of Section Two was forced to rely on a battery-powered radio that he suspected was only slightly newer than the discovery of radio communication itself.

Of course, the damn thing wasn't working quite right, and the Commanders were far too afraid of someone taking advantage of the power outage by hacking into the MAGI to lend him a single technician to fix the damn thing. So Chiron was forced to try and tweak it himself.

His efforts took place over a long period of time, and were accompanied by much cursing on his part. However, he was finally rewarded with a burst of static and some sounds that might've been words.

"Hello?" he asked, snatching up the transmitter and stabbing the button on the side of it as he twisted knobs and dials with his other hand. "Hello?"

"Chie…that…ou?" the reply came through the crackle of static.

"Yes!" Chiron shouted. "Report, damn it!"

"Sir…ird…cult…ab…Batgir…"

Besides "sir" the only word in that Chiron was really sure about was "Batgirl."

Hearing _that_ name immediately caused his eyes to widen.

When the Commander had discovered that the girl in black was prowling the streets of Tokyo-3, he hadn't even considered putting Section Two on the job of tracking her down and neutralizing her. Chiron grudgingly admitted he could understand that—most of the so-called agents he had at his disposal were little more than thugs in suits, who'd been selected for nothing so much as their willingness to do whatever they were told, regardless of how savage or unpleasant—but that still didn't mean he was happy about it. Though Section Two was officially the NERV bodyguard force, everybody who knew anything realized the organization's true purpose was to serve as the black hand of Commander Ikari. That they hadn't even been giving a chance to take down the bat was a stain upon the honor of the organization he led.

If a Section Two man currently had a chance to kill or capture her…

"Get Batgirl! Dead or alive, I don't care! Just take her out of the game!" he shouted into the transmitter.

* * *

Shinji Ikari honestly wasn't quite sure what the most insane part of this day was so far.

Being abducted by the Light of the Divine was definitely a contender for the title. Up until that day, the cult had seemed to be far more bark than bite. They would occasionally picket the school, protesting Project-E, and once they had even staged a protest outside the apartment building he currently called home. It had always disquieted him to know that a large group of people felt that he and the other pilots were committing some enormous act of heresy, but he had never felt as though his safety was seriously threatened when the cult was around. Clearly, he'd been wrong about _that_.

The blackout itself, which had presumably played a very large part in allowing this situation to come about in the first place, was also seriously weird. Both Misato and Ritsuko had once individually decided to inform how Tokyo-3 was some great "city of tomorrow" that would never suffer from such a thing.

Then, of course, there was being rescued in an extremely dramatic fashion by the Batgirl, whom he hadn't even been completely sure was real up until that day. The girl in black was something of a local legend in Tokyo-3, and there were many, many different stories about her. Some people said that she was some kind of shadow creature, who only became corporeal when she wanted to be. Others claimed that she some type of bat/human hybrid, a literal batgirl. Still others swore that she was some sort of super advanced combat robot.

Kensuke, of course, seemed to have his own theories, but all Shinji knew for sure about them was that the otaku thought Batgirl could fly.

Yet for all that, now that the practically mythical young woman was sitting right in front of him on their stolen motorcycle, she seemed like…just a normal girl.

A red car being driven by a man wearing a type of white robe that Shinji had become all too familiar with that day suddenly began to speed toward them. For a second, Shinji was completely certain that he was going to hit them. He wondered if he'd get to see his mother again when he was dead.

Batgirl cut back on the gas at exactly the right moment, and when the car veered to the left in an attempt to collide with them, it missed them completely and instead ended up crashing into a parking meter instead, breaking it open and sending coins cascading onto the sidewalk.

The girl in black withdrew a bat-shaped piece of metal from her belt. With one, seemingly effortless—indeed almost careless looking—toss, she sent it spinning through the air. The thing hit one of the hostile car's tires, puncturing it. For a brief moment, Shinji could hear the air inside it hissing as it escaped. Then they had left the cultist in the dust.

_Okay, maybe she's not exactly a "normal" girl,_ he thought. _I couldn't have done that if I had a thousand tries._

Yes, the blackout, the kidnapping, the Batgirl…they were all truly crazy parts of what as easily the most insane day he'd endured since he'd arrived in Tokyo-3 for the first time.

Yet all of that wasn't the most bizarre thing about the whole day, at least not in his mind.

Sitting behind Batgirl, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist as he held on for dear life, he couldn't seem to help but take notice of just how firm and shapely her body was. Or how well her tight costume displayed it.

Shinji felt rather ashamed of himself for this. That he could even _think_ about such things at a time like this…well, it made him wonder if Asuka might not be right when she accused him of being a pervert.

Yet, shame or not, a part of him was definitely enjoying the close contact that came with this motorcycle ride, despite himself.

Batgirl took a turn at a corner, and Shinji only belatedly remembered to shift his weight to the side. It didn't matter; she expertly maneuvered the bike with seemingly no difficulty.

A black sedan with tinted windows became visible once they got around the corner, and Shinji felt his heart leap. There was only one group of people in Tokyo-3 who drove around in cars like that.

_I never thought I'd be so glad to see Section Two!_ He thought.

Just as he was picturing himself riding to the safety of the Geofront in the backseat of the formidable car, invisible to the cultists who had gone completely, totally insane, the Section Two agent emerged from his vehicle. He was, like almost all the members of NERV's secret police force, a big, burly man who was clad in a black suit and black sunglasses. Shinji was hardly surprised by his appearance.

What _did_ surprise him, however, was when the man drew a handgun from a holster inside his jacket, pointed it at the batcycle, and fired two shots. Both of them hit the street in front of the motorcycle, narrowly missing the front tire.

"Stop!" Shinji shouted. "Stop shooting! It's me!"

The Section Two agent ignored him, firing a third time. This time the bullet came treacherously close to striking Batgirl's head…and then his own. He could feel the heat of the round on his left ear as it flew past him.

Realizing how close he had just come to death, Shinji abruptly lost the ability to continue trying to get the Section Two to stop firing as a strange feeling of wooziness overcame him.

Batgirl, who had slowed the motorcycle down in preparation of letting her passenger off, grunted something unintelligible and gunned the engine. It released a truly _thunderous_ roar, the tires smoking with the rapid acceleration, and they sped off and away from the apparently murderous Section Two agent. Shinji turned his head to look back at man and saw him scrambling to get into his car. However, they were long gone before he could even get the key into the ignition.

Which just left the multitude of other potential hazards in the suddenly mad city to deal with.

"I…I'm sorry," Shinji stammered out eventually, forcing himself to speak loudly enough to be heard over the noise of the motor. "I don't why he attacked us like that."

"I do," Batgirl replied. "I'm not on the best of terms with the rest of NERV."

So they were after her, Shinji realized. That Section Two agent hadn't just snapped for some reason or anything. She would probably get the same reaction from any of the men in that organization.

"You can let me off," he said.

"What?"

"You can let me off here. If you're the reason he shot at us, it should be fine if I go back by myself," he said, trying to sound braver than he felt at the prospect of trekking any distance through the suddenly very hazardous city by himself.

"No," she replied, her voice lowering to a growl.

"I don't want you to put yourself in danger over me," Shinji said.

"Listen, I _am_ going to protect you, regardless of what you say," she said, her voice almost savage in tone. "The police should be more sane about this situation."

Shinji fell silent, both taken aback and a little touched. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had expressed the intent to protect him, especially with such obvious ferocity.

Despite himself, a small smile formed on his face. He almost felt _sorry_ for the Light of the Divine and any Section Two agent foolish enough to try and attack them.

Then reality intruded, bringing his feelings of confidence and safety to an abrupt end. A trio of black vehicles that obviously belonged to Section Two burst out of the mouth of an intersection, plowing through a pair of small cars which had crashed there and had been blocking it. The smaller vehicles were thrown aside like they were toys, one of them striking a metal pole that held up a currently dead traffic light, the other careening into the side a building.

Shinji thought he'd seen a woman sitting in the driver's seat of the latter car, but the whole thing happened too quickly for him to be sure. He told himself it was probably just the product of his imagination.

Still, he gripped onto Batgirl's waist more tightly without even realizing he was doing it.

The motorcycle sped past the three black sedans with ease as the drivers struggled to get their cars back under control after the reckless stunt they'd just pull. However, each car boasted a powerful engine, and once they got up to speed, they kept pace with Batgirl's commandeered bike.

Shinji soon heard gunshots ringing in the air.

"God," he breathed, barely able to believe that even the thuggish members of Section Two would so brazenly risk killing him in an attempt to take out Batgirl.

"Relax," the dark lady told him. "It's extremely hard to hit someone on a speeding motorcycle, especially from a moving car."

Somehow, Shinji just _knew_ that she'd relied upon that more than once in the past.

"Why are they after you?" the Third Child asked.

_What the hell did you _do_ to piss them off so much?_ He couldn't help but mentally add.

Her answer was more than a little cryptic. "I seek the truth," she said darkly.

_Well, that clears _that_ up,_ Shinji said, and had to resist a very short lived but very strong urge to laugh.

Clearly, this experience was getting to him. So was the stress of piloting, probably.

As if he hadn't known that already.

"It would be easier to lose them if I still had _my_ motorcycle," Batgirl said. "With this one, it'll be…less pleasant. Hold on."

He did so, and Batgirl began to weave through the many obstacles—stationary and otherwise—that littered the chaotic streets, pushing the stolen motorcycle's speed and agility to their limits.

They _should_ have left the Section Two cars in the dust easily; the black sedans could never hope to match the feats that the caped crusader was forcing the big motorcycle to perform, and indeed, they didn't try to. They just bullied their way through the streets, heedless of the damage their cars were sustaining, heedless of the danger they were putting the innocent people in the streets in, and even heedless of their own safety.

He was not oblivious to the multiple planes flying overhead during this time, even though he could barely hear them over the din of the motorcycle's apparently huge engine, the nearly continual blare of car horns, and blasts of gunfire. However, with everything that was going on, they were easily the least of his concerns at the moment.

At some point, three more of the black sedans that Section Two was so fond of emerged from side streets and joined the chase, just as they reached an area of the city where the streets were more crowded.

Shinji had to resist the urge to squeeze his eyes shut as Batgirl's maneuvers grew ever more death defying, and the carnage that Section Two was leaving in its wake became even more horrible. The air seemed to be thick with speeding bullets, and he felt certain that it was only a matter of time before both he and Batgirl were killed, despite the incredible level of skill the dark lady had displayed thus far.

Then, just as the violence and madness reached a crescendo…it stopped. The half a dozen Section Two cars broke off their dogged pursuit, and the traffic abruptly thinned, until only a handful of other moving vehicles could be found in the streets, most of these heading in the opposite direction that they were. Though the roar of the motorcycle's engine still filled Shinji's ears, it seemed almost quiet all of sudden.

He felt relieved, but on some deep, instinctual level, he didn't like it. Though not an outdoorsy type of person, he knew that it was a bad sign when a forest abruptly went quiet.

"What happened?" he shouted over the Angel. "What made them stop chasing us?"

"That," Batgirl answered simply, gesturing with a quick jerk of her head.

Shinji looked up, and his face paled. Looming above even some of the city's tallest skyscrapers was a beast that could only be an Angel. It looked almost like a spider, if spiders grew to such enormous proportions. However, even discounting the size, it didn't truly look like a real arachnid. Unless, of course, there was some kind of spider that had a central body completely covered in eyes.

As if responding to the Third Child's thought, one of those yellow and blue orbs quickly swiveled around within its socket, and came to rest upon the speeding motorcycle.

Shinji had seen multiple Angels from the cockpit of his Evangelion, and he had gotten to see the carcass of the Fourth Angel up close, but this was something altogether different. Looking into the eye of the beast was like gazing into the dark heart of his enemies, and realizing that they hated him _personally._

It was in that moment that he went from knowing he might die to knowing he _would_ die.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I'd been planning this mad chase through the streets of Tokyo-3 for a long time now, but when I started writing it out, it just sort of felt flat to me. So I just kept making things worse and worse for our heroine, with Section Two becoming the problem, rather than the solution (I know, what else is new, right?), Batgirl getting a concussion, and them running into the Angel. Did it make it all more exciting? Hopefully. Did it make it longer? Hell, yes. I had no plans for this to end on a cliffhanger, but I think this chapter would have just dragged on and on if I'd kept going until the conclusion of this particular predicament.

Anyway, not much else to say about this chapter, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omake

Bad to the Bone

This had to be one the most insane days in Shinji Ikari's life, rivaled only by the day he'd arrived in Tokyo-3 and been introduced to Unit One. Fortunately, it seemed that he and his dark rescuer were in the eye of the storm; for the moment, the streets were quiet, and no one was trying to kill them.

Batgirl slowed the motorcycle and brought it to a stop by an eerie deserted intersection. She turned, and was about to say something to him when the sound of another motorcycle stopped her. The caped crusader tensed.

As the other motorcycle and its rider came into view, Shinji truly started wondering when he'd wake up.

The tires of the enormous, heavily armed bike spat flames as it went, leaving a trail of fire along the street. Seated on the monster motorcycle was a horned, demonic creature wearing a leather jacket. She—for the demon was clearly a she; her ample chest made that quite evident—made no motion to attack. Instead, she pulled up her bike next to Batgirl's.

Then flames spontaneously seemed to leap up around a nearby traffic light, causing Shinji to jump. The metal didn't seem to take any damage, and indeed, the traffic light came back to life, despite the blackout. The light was red.

The demonic girl revved her bike's engine.

Shinji was far from an expert on such matters, but even he knew a challenge when he saw one. The fiery girl had just thrown down the gauntlet.

And Batgirl picked it up, revving the engine of her bike in response.

"Um, Miss Batgirl?" Shinji said. "You're not really going to—?"

The light turned green. Shinji screamed as both bikes _exploded_ forward, clutching onto his rescuer for dear life. He screamed something—even he wasn't entirely sure what. He thought it was probably him wondering aloud why all this happened to him.

Batgirl's bike easily outstripped the huge motorcycle the demoness rode, but the Ghost Rider threw her head back and laughed anyway. Shinji hadn't stopped screaming like a little girl yet.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: **Of Giant Spiders and Fat Penguins

The mind of the Batgirl when she was in full battle mode was a cold and calculating place that rivaled any computer. True, it _was_ possible for her to become emotional and lose her focus; however, that required a personal connection with whatever the situation involved (Kyodai Ken, for example).

In other words, it took a lot more than a fifty ton arachnid to freak out the caped crusader.

_Okay,_ she thought as she drove her commandeered motorcycle toward the giant monster, _this thing has frightened off all our pursuers…and it's scared the hell out of Shinji._

She spared a brief moment to note how tight the Third Child's grip on her waist had become, and she tried not to like it. She glanced at the Angel, which immediately put a damper on any inconvenient warm and fuzzy feelings she might been harboring.

Even from the ground, dozens and dozens of meters below the beast's central body, it was easy to see just how grotesque the thing was. It was covered in yellow and blue eyes that were just _wrong_ in a way she couldn't easily define.

_But is it really that dangerous to us?_ She wondered.

Despite having no plans to ever attempt fighting an Angel herself, Batgirl had kept a close eye on the ongoing war against them. They were the focus of all of NERV's efforts, and thus they were of interest to her.

She had noticed details and patterns; despite coming in wildly different shapes and sizes, the Angels so far had all behaved mostly the same. That included a tendency to ignore anything that didn't shoot at them while they made their way toward Tokyo-3 and NERV.

So, assuming the pattern held, the Angel would take no notice of them. If it did, it would view them as being as insignificant as bugs.

Which would be rather ironic, considering this Angel's form.

Of course, if the Angel _didn't_ follow the pattern, then she was in a lot of trouble. It wasn't the sort of gamble she'd normally take, but…

_With both Section Two and that damn cult pursuing us, there was just no choice in the matter,_ she thought grimly.

She knew that her decision to head _toward_ the Angel had been the logical course of action. However, the moment the giant arachnid's many horrible eyes all turned to stare at her and Shinji, she knew that it had still been the _wrong_ decision.

A great spurt of brown liquid burst forth from the eye on the very bottom of the Angel's central body, in an action that could only be accurately described as 'projectile weeping.' Thick, acrid smoke immediately began to rise up into the air as soon as the substance hit the street.

"Acid!" Shinji yelled unnecessarily.

It didn't take Batgirl long to size up the situation. They were headed toward the deadly liquid at top speed, and any attempt by her to make a 180 degree turn quickly enough to keep them from hitting it would only end in disaster.

Reaching into one of her utility belt's larger compartments, she removed a small metal sphere about the size of a cherry. Not even bothering to press the trigger on the tiny but still very dangerous device, she threw the thing as hard as could into the small lake of acid in the street.

Almost instantly, the corrosive liquid ate through the metal sphere's container, unleashing the substance inside. There was a loud hiss, followed by a blast of what looked like thick white steam, and finally a quiet creaking sound.

A moment later, the white "steam" cleared, and revealed that the acid had been frozen solid. Batgirl sped over the brownish sheet of ice, which did no damage to the bike.

"What the heck was that?" Shinji asked in amazement, turning his head to look at the frozen acid.

"Cryo-capsule," Batgirl answered. "Never had a use for one until now."

She didn't mention that the substance inside the thing had originally been developed by Yamagishi Enterprises for use on the Evangelions, should NERV ever need to put one into stasis.

_And Motomu thought I would never have a need for those things,_ she thought smugly as she maneuvered the bike off the sheet of frozen acid.

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to gloat for long. The Angel's eyes continued to follow them, and within seconds, it had sent another gush of acid at them.

This time, Batgirl didn't wait until the deadly substance had hit the ground. She immediately flung another of her capsules, hitting the stream of acid in midair. Once again, the stuff instantly dissolved the casing, allowing the incredibly potent solution within to escape. The acid froze before it could hit the street, and the Angel suddenly found itself with a lump of ice frozen right to one of its eyes.

Gravity took hold at once; the Angel's eye was able to support the weight of the frozen liquid for only a second before part of it was torn off and went falling to the street.

"Ow," Shinji breathed, apparently experiencing some reflexive sympathy for the beast, which had dark blue blood spurting from its injured eye.

Batgirl was too preoccupied to feel pity for the Angel. She had hoped that the monster had decided to attack them because they were the only things moving in the area, and not because it somehow sensed that Shinji had had contact with an Evangelion.

_Of course, that's probably a moot point now,_ she thought, noting the way the Angel was writhing about in agony, its legs flailing and crashing into nearby buildings, breaking off pieces of them and sending chunks of rubble crashing to the ground below.

Batgirl and Shinji were nowhere near any of the Angel's incredibly long legs, but they could still hear the sound of concrete and twisted metal raining down and striking the street.

_It's not going to give up any time soon,_ she thought grimly. _Not now that I actually hurt it._

Shinji reached the same conclusion a few moments later when the Angel finally seemed to get itself under control and its remaining eyes turned back to the two people on the speeding motorcycle, _glaring_ at them with murderous intent.

"I think you pissed it off," he observed.

Batgirl resisted the urge to respond with a scathing remark, instead simply grunting as she twisted the motorcycle's accelerator. She took a sharp turn down a side street, hoping that the Angel's very size would make it difficult for it to follow them.

That was a hope was almost immediately dashed, as the Angel simply started smashing its way through the city in its zeal to attack them. Its multiple legs left as many trails of destruction through Tokyo-3 as it knocked over or stomped on any structure that got into its way. It was now firing small, quick bursts of acid at them, apparently wary of Batgirl using the same icy trick again. The caped crusader had to weave around dangerously to avoid the large puddles of the stuff.

_If you make some comment about how just trying to speed away isn't working, Shinji, I swear, I might just throw you off this bike,_ Batgirl thought, her jaw clenched in concentration.

The Third Child naturally didn't have the ability to read the dark lady's mind, but perhaps he somehow sensed the menace in her frame. Whatever the reason, he kept his mouth firmly shut.

"There's a teargas gun in a holster on my belt," she said. "It's on my right side. Take it."

"What?" he asked, obviously confused.

"Just _**do**_ it," she growled at him.

"Um, okay," he said.

He reached over and fumbled for the weapon, his fingers clumsy thanks to both his awkwardness and the unusual position they were in. He was trying very hard not to touch her hip, but he didn't succeed; his hand brushed against her, and he immediately pulled back.

She couldn't see him, but she would have bet her life that he was blushing.

Under other circumstances, she might have found his shyness endearing. And even under _these_ circumstances, she couldn't help but notice how warm his hands felt, and how that warmth seemed to linger even after he'd pulled away.

But their lives were at stake. There was no time for sentimentality.

"_Take the gun_," she hissed at him.

"R-Right," he stammered, and resumed his efforts.

It took a good deal more fumbling around on his part, but eventually, he got the gun out of its holster and into his hand. He stared at it dumbly for a second once the task was done.

"Now what?" he asked.

Batgirl dodged a blast of acid that came perilously close before she answered. "Take out the gas canisters inside," she ordered.

This took some more fumbling around on his part, but the design of the gun was simple enough. Shinji managed to achieve his goal in only a few seconds. "What do I do with them?" he asked, looking down at the canisters.

"Just get rid of them," Batgirl commanded tersely. "They're not important."

Shinji obediently tossed them to the street, and they soon disappeared from the view of the two people on the speeding motorcycle.

Before the Third Child could request further instruction, Batgirl had detached the container on her belt which held the cryo-capsules and handed it to Shinji. "Load the gun with these," she said. "Get as many in there as you can without _over_loading it, understand?"

"Yes," Shinji said, barely audible above the roar of the motorcycle's obnoxiously loud engine. A few moments passed before he spoke again. "Done."

"Good," she replied. "Now, I'm going to bring us as close to the Angel as I can. When you get the chance, _take the shot_."

She normally would've done it herself, but her head was swimming. Batgirl was definitely feeling the effects of the concussion she'd suffered earlier, and she didn't feel confident of her ability to pull off any needed evasive maneuvers with only one hand on the bike's handlebars. Just steering the bike had become a challenge, in fact.

Not that she would tell Shinji that, of course. Batgirl never admitted weakness to anyone.

She turned the bike around as abruptly as she dared, ignoring the way the stunt made her stomach roil, and gunned the accelerator. With a loud roar of the engine, they went speeding _toward_ the giant pseudo-arachnid that was trying to kill them.

Shinji's grip around her waist tightened.

"_Don't_ panic," she growled at him.

He swallowed audibly before answering. "I won't," he answered in a small voice that didn't actually inspire a whole lot of confidence.

Feeling irritable for more reasons than she could count, Batgirl marveled at the fact that _this_ was the guy who'd scored the most kills against the Angels so far.

_Of course, I'm sure they look very different from down here,_ she mused, just as the Angel spat acid at them.

She swerved to avoid the deadly liquid, only to nearly end up driving right into another blast. The Angel was shooting at them from several of its eyes in rapid bursts, which forced her to engage in a series of quick turns that pushed her abilities to their very limits.

_You'd have to be a sniper to land a shot under these conditions,_ she decided grimly. _I have to get away before we—_

She stopped in mid thought as the Angel unleashed one massive attack. It shot acid from all the eyes facing them simultaneously, something Batgirl had suspected it could do, and the result was an enormous tidal wave of acid send flying through the air, coming right toward them.

Batgirl's grip on the bike's handlebars tightened until her knuckles turned white beneath her black gloves, and she knew that she was going to die. And even worse, an innocent, namely Shinji Ikari, was going to die with her. The knowledge was what caused her to turn the bike sharply in an attempt to evade the miniature tsunami of acid, even though she knew it was futile.

"Center the target, pull the switch," the Third Child said softly as he squeezed the trigger.

The cryo-capsules burst from the barrel of the weapon like buckshot, and they flew with more force than Batgirl would have expected, considering that they had been fired from a gun not meant for them.

It wasn't exactly a shot that a sharpshooter would have bragged about, but considering the hairpin turn Batgirl had just performed, it was impressive that Shinji had managed to point the gun in the right direction. And precision was hardly needed, considering the size of the target.

The capsules began to really spread out just before they hit the wall of acid. They entered with a series of small splashes, and as before the casings immediately began to erode at a fast pace.

When they broke open, the result was nothing short of incredible, even to Batgirl, who already knew just how potent the chemical was.

Chunks of ice instantly formed within the wave of acid, rapidly spreading out until they joined with one another. Within moments, the entire, catastrophic blast of the corrosive liquid had been frozen solid.

Nor did the ice stop there. A layer of ice came into existence on the Angel, the water vapor in the very air freezing, encasing half the beast's central body. And it just kept going; it continued to travel outwards along the exterior of the giant bug, soon reaching two of its long, long legs. The ice went all the way to the first joint of those spindly appendages before it stopped.

Abruptly finding herself out of danger, the caped crusader brought her commandeered motorcycle to a stop, allowing herself a moment to gawk at the half-encased Angel.

"Wow," Shinji said, a sentiment that Batgirl almost echoed before she stopped herself.

The Angel had halted dead in its tracks, which wasn't the least bit surprising considering that about a third of its overall body mass was frozen solid.

_Amazing what about fifty million yen worth of cryogenic technology will do,_ Batgirl thought, a tiny grin forming beneath her cowl.

She was about to get the bike moving again when the Angel began to tilt. This time the chunk of ice remained firmly attached to its body, and the weight of it was sending the Angel toppling over. As Batgirl and Shinji watched, it fell forward until the massive block of frozen acid crashed into the street, shattering the asphalt where it hit.

Yet still the Angel remained firmly stuck, one of its legs dangling uselessly in the air.

"It's not dead," Shinji said grimly.

"Maybe not, but it won't be killing us any time soon," Batgirl said before tapping the side of her cowl, activating the radio there. "I need to know the nearest route to the underground tunnels."

"Mayumi-san?" Motomu's voice responded immediately. He sounded worried and frazzled. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said. "But like I said, I need to know the nearest route to the underground tunnels. I have to drop off an EVA pilot somewhere the cultists can't get at him, and then I'm heading back."

The butler paused for a moment before replying, and Batgirl could guess why. Motomu was too sharp not to realize that something must be wrong if she was no longer planning to infiltrating NERV headquarters after seeing to Shinji's safety.

Thankfully, he opted _not_ to start demanding to know what had happened. "According to the map you have in the computer, there is an access tunnel not far from your position."

"Tell me where," she said.

Motomu did, and she took off, arriving within minutes at one of the large, armored doors that led to the extensive tunnels and catacombs beneath the city.

"Um, with power out in the city, this door has to be opened manually," Shinji said as he climbed off the motorcycle. "I'll do it."

"Don't bother," Batgirl said, walking over to the large wheel that one had to turn to make the door slide open.

"That probably hasn't been oiled since it was installed," Shinji said. "I can…"

Batgirl gripped the wheel's handles and spun it. With the Batsuit enhancing her strength, it wasn't a very tough job, and the door was soon open wide enough for the Third Child to slip inside.

"…never mind," Shinji said.

"You may get lost in there before you reach NERV headquarters," Batgirl told him, "but there's no way the Light of the Divine will find you. Section Two might, but I doubt they'll give you much trouble if I'm not with you."

"Thank you," Shinji said. "You saved my life."

Batgirl just grunted. "Get inside before someone sees us," she ordered.

He nodded and slipped through the door. Wordlessly, Batgirl gripped the handles on the wheel again and turned it until the door had shut.

Now alone inside the dim corridor, Shinji allowed himself to slump against the door, releasing a single, dry laugh. Even by the standards he'd had to adjust to ever since coming to Tokyo-3, this day had been completely insane.

"God, I was saved by Batgirl," he said to himself. "Kensuke is going to be _so_ jealous."

He laughed again, more loudly this time. The idea of anyone envying the ordeal he'd just gone through was ridiculous.

"She's real," he said to himself, a slightly crazy smirk still on his face. "I thought she was just some urban legend that Kensuke had swallowed, but she's real. And she's _hot!_"

That last bit seemed to echo through the tunnels, allowing Shinji to hear just how perverted he'd sounded. Blushing, he looked around guiltily to confirm that no one was around to hear him. Once satisfied that this was the case, he set off, en route to the safety of NERV headquarters.

* * *

"_Finally,_" Asuka said as Unit Two at last reached the surface of the city.

The Second Child was _not_ having a good day, and the attempt made by the crazy cult to kidnap her earlier was the least of it. No, she was far more furious about the fact that they _had_ kidnapped Shinji, the baka having been too meek to fight back against them.

Asuka, naturally, told herself that she was so riled over what had happened to him purely on principle. A crazy cult like the Light of the Divine kidnapping an _Evangelion pilot_? Intolerable!

It wasn't like she was worried about him, or anything. Really.

_Of course, things didn't get any better when we got to base and found out an Angel was attacking in the middle of a blackout,_ she thought irritably as she commanded her Evangelion to climb out of the huge shaft which led all the way down into the Geofront.

Not being able to use the electromagnetic lifts to get to the surface was bad enough; having to crawl through a series of tunnels just to get to the rather convenient shaft had been humiliating.

All in all, the whole day had very much put the Second Child in the mood to kill something.

_I wonder if I'll have enough power to make it to that crazy cult's headquarters after I kill the Angel,_ she thought, glancing at one of the bulky F-type batteries which was attached to her Unit Two's pylons.

"Pilot Soryu," Rei said, opening an EVA-to-EVA communications link, "your assistance would be…appreciated."

Asuka glanced back to see that Unit Zero was struggled to get out of the shaft. The redhead couldn't help but smirk at seeing Rei struggle with something she'd done easily.

"Of course I'll help," she said magnanimously, then offered Unit Zero a hand up.

A moment later, the prototype Evangelion had joined Unit Two on the surface, and the time to hunt the Angel had truly begun.

"Where do you think it is?" Asuka asked, as she commanded her EVA to creep through the city. The crimson colossus moved as stealthily as a seventy meter tall war machine possibly could, rifle held at the ready.

"Unknown," Rei replied. "The size of the previous Angels meant that locating them was never difficult. However, the Angels' forms have varied greatly."

"So maybe this one's small enough to sneak around," Asuka finished. "Or for all we know, it could be invisible. Or maybe something even worse."

"That is correct," Rei agreed.

A great crashing sound suddenly echoed through the otherwise quiet city. Asuka's whole body tensed, and she commanded Unit Two to take cover behind a nearby skyscraper. She suddenly wished she hadn't asked Rei about this Angel.

Very carefully, she risked a peek at her enemy.

_What the hell?_ She thought at what she saw.

The Angel appeared to have taken on the form of some sort of giant bug, which wasn't really too strange, so far as the Angels went. However, it appeared to be stuck to a very large chunk of slowly melting brown ice. The Angel had actually been pulled off balance by the weight of the stuff, and one of its legs was stuck in midair. It was kicking about wildly with this leg, in a desperate but fruitless attempt to escape its bizarre predicament.

As the Second Child watched, it managed to kick a nearby building, sending chunks of rubble falling to the ground below.

_Well, I guess that explains the noise, but how in Gott's name did the Angel end up in __**this**__ position?_ She wondered. _Did it just have to know if its tongue would __**really**__ get stuck there?_

The redhead shook her head to clear it, finding that she had difficulty thinking straight in the face of this surreal scene.

"I'm going to get close enough to neutralize its AT field and then attack," she announced. "Cover me, First Child."

"Acknowledged," was Rei's curt response.

Asuka ordered Unit Two to approach the Angel at a slow, cautious pace, thinking that this was far too easy. She expected the seemingly stuck spider to unleash some kind of devastating attack at any moment, but it never came. Her Evangelion's AT field met with the Angel's, the two barriers canceling one another out.

And still, nothing happened.

With a mental shrug, Asuka raised her pallet rifle and fired.

The stream of massive shells punched through the Angel's central body with ease, reducing the thing to Swiss cheese. It released a horrible, insectoid clicking sound and its struggles intensified for a few seconds.

Then it was still.

_Well, that was lame,_ Asuka thought, disgruntled that her first solo kill was against such a pathetic foe. What satisfaction could she gain from such an 'achievement'? _Rei or baka Shinji could have done that just as easily as I did. Speaking of baka Shinji…_

"Hey, Rei, wanna find the Light of the Divine's headquarters and step on it before we run out of power?" she asked.

"Yes," Rei answered, "however, that would not be wise."

"Don't worry, we'll just tell the brass we did it by accident or something," Asuka said.

"It is unlikely they will believe that, considering that the Light of the Divine's headquarters is on the other side of the city," Rei pointed out. "However, I was referring to the possibility that Ikari is currently inside that building."

"Oh," Asuka said, her enthusiasm instantly dampened. "Yeah, I guess you have a point there, First. Looks like all we can do it head back." She sighed.

"Indeed," Rei agreed glumly.

* * *

Some time later, Batgirl pulled into her own underground headquarters, still riding the large red motorcycle she had been forced to commandeer in the chaos of the day. She was unsurprised to find Motomu in the Batcave, waiting for her.

"Good evening, Mayumi-san," he greeted her the moment she had turned the bike's engine off. "Are you all right?"

Part of her was almost amused by the blunt question; her butler and guardian was usually much more subtle about such queries.

"I'm fine," she replied as she pulled off her cowl and got off the bike.

"I see you decided upon a change in transportation," Motomu commented when it became clear that she wasn't going to venture anything further.

"Yes," Mayumi agreed absently, heading over to her workbench. "I'll be requiring my backup Batcycle soon. Also, please run the plates on the motorcycle I picked up and make sure the owner receives generous compensation for his property—anonymously, of course."

"Of course," Motomu agreed. "What shall I do with the motorcycle itself?"

"You can dispose of it when you get the chance," Mayumi replied. "I don't need it anymore."

The butler watched with exasperation as she silently went to the task of replenishing her supplies, obviously not planning on telling him what had happened. He noted, too, how much of her arsenal she had apparently expended that day; she must have faced quite a lot of opposition in rescuing the Third Child.

Eventually finishing with this task, Mayumi carefully put her gear away, then withdrew to her small changing room to exchange her Batsuit for casual clothing. Once that was done, she headed for the entrance to the rest of Yamagishi Manor. She had nearly reached the armored door when the butler couldn't quite restrain himself any longer.

"Mayumi-san," he said.

"Yes?" she asked, turning back to him.

"Are you still _quite_ certain that you're not developing some real affection for that boy?" he asked, just a trace of an impish smirk on his distinguished face.

Mayumi scowled and refused to answer the question. "I'm going to bed," she announced instead. "Please be so good as to wake me once every hour, will you?" she asked before finally leaving the cave.

Motomu's eyes widened. Having served as Mayumi's medic for some time now, he knew all too what that request meant.

"Mayumi-san," he called, rushing after her. "What on Earth happened to you out there?"

* * *

The Ninja knew that what he was doing wasn't strictly necessary, or even terribly wise.

After all, he was on Gendo Ikari's payroll. If he wanted information that was pertinent to his assigned task—slaying Batgirl—then he could just _ask_ for it, and his employer would probably provide him with it.

Not to mention that if he was caught sneaking into the Section Two chief's office, then he would be in a great deal of trouble, to put it mildly.

_Hmph, well, if it wasn't so easy to infiltrate this place, perhaps I wouldn't feel so inclined to do it,_ Kyodai Ken thought with a smirk.

Not that the NERV headquarters didn't have formidable defenses, but the limited access he'd received when he'd signed up to work for Ikari got him past the worst of the security systems. At least, so far as his purpose of getting into Captain Chiron's office was concerned.

_And besides, why should I trust Ikari to give me all the information I require, when I can slip in here at night and take it for myself?_ He mused as he entered Chiron's office, as silent as a shadow.

The personal workspace of the Section Two chief was dark, but the Ninja was used to operating in dark places. He slipped a pair of night vision goggles onto his face and began to look around the room.

_Now, if I were a file containing all the information NERV has on Batgirl…where would I be?_ He silently mused.

Kyodai expected to have to endure a protracted search through the large filing cabinet in the corner of the room, but fortune was with him that night. He found what he was looking for right on Chiron's desk, which made him think the file had been recently updated.

_Which would seem to suggest there's some truth to the rumors flying around the city,_ he thought.

Even before NERV had announced that the latest Angel had been slain – thus signaling that it was safe to leave the shelters – the people in the city had been buzzing with rumors concerning Batgirl. Supposedly, she had been sighted outside during the blackout, and by multiple people no less.

Some of the more wild rumors even had her fighting the Angel, though Kyodai doubted that very strongly. Regardless, he was very interested in the rumors.

_What could make you venture out in broad daylight like that?_ He wondered as he removed his night vision goggles.

Removing a small pen light from his belt, the Ninja clicked it on and began to read through the file. Section Two had compiled a surprisingly detailed report of the whole incident, and it seemed that Batgirl had indeed ventured into the city in the middle of an Angel attack.

When he got to the part about _why_ she'd done it, his eyes widened with surprise and excitement. She had taken such a huge risk in order to protect someone.

_If I can find whoever she did that for, I can force the little rich girl to face me wherever I desire,_ he thought, eagerly reading on.

However, his expression morphed into a scowl when he found out just whose safety Batgirl had gone to such lengths to protect. It had been the Third Child, Shinji Ikari.

His current employer's only son.

_Thousands of people in this city, and it had to be him,_ Kyodai thought disgustedly.

While his ongoing battle with his latest target had long ago become personal, ceasing to be a purely business venture, the Ninja still wanted to be able to collect his fee once the job was complete. Obviously, kidnapping his boss's son was a good way to ensure he never saw a single yen of that money.

And of course, trying to assassinate her at that party he had learned she was soon throwing at the Yamagishi Manor was a nonstarter; he wasn't interested in invading her home territory, not after he had kidnapped her butler. Though she was lacking in talent compared to him, he knew that she was not a _complete_ fool; the Batgirl had doubtlessly fortified her home's defenses.

In fact, the whole event was probably a trap. Better to pass on it and attack at a time when she didn't expect him.

_Soon, little girl, I will have your life,_ he silently pledged, putting the file back where he'd spotted it and slipping out of the room.

* * *

"Good morning, Shinji," Mayumi greeted the Third Child as he arrived at school the next day. Her expression soon morphed into a frown. "Are you all right? You look exhausted."

"I'm fine, though I guess I _am_ exhausted," he answered, rubbing his bleary eyes. "Late night at NERV."

"What happened yesterday, anyway?" Mayumi asked. "The power went out yesterday, even though it's never supposed to do that here. And there are all these wild rumors flying around, most of them involving Batgirl."

After Batgirl had dropped him off, it had taken him hours to blunder through the underground tunnels and into NERV headquarters.

He had actually been happy to discover that the Angel had long ago been killed by Asuka and Rei, and he would have been more than pleased to call the day over and go home at that point. Unfortunately, NERV had had other plans.

First he'd been debriefed (interrogated would be a more fitting term) by some nameless member of Section Two about Batgirl for nearly three hours, even though it really took him only about thirty minutes to tell the man everything he remembered about the dark lady. Then he'd had to endure a long lecture from Misato, who had been more than a little displeased upon hearing that he hadn't really fought back against the cult when they'd abducted him.

And _then_, just when he'd thought it was over, he'd run into Asuka. The Second Child had also felt the need to scold him, and much more vociferously than Misato had, at that. He had actually been rather touched; it seemed like she'd really been worried about him, but it had still made a long day feel even longer.

"It's a long story," he told Mayumi eventually. "If it's okay with you, I'll tell you about it some other time. When I'm fully awake."

"Oh, of course," Mayumi said.

The two started to walk toward the school building together. They were silent at first, but Mayumi soon spoke up again.

"Shinji?" she said.

"Hmm?"

"Um, there's this…party I sort of have to throw at the manor," she said, speaking so softly that he had to strain to hear her. "Yamagishi Enterprises is unveiling a new product, you see. I normally dodge these things, but this time that just isn't an option."

On an ordinary day, Shinji might have started to suspect what she wanted, even if he wouldn't have believed it initially. That day, he didn't have a clue. "Okay," he said. "So?"

Mayumi blushed. "Um, well," she stammered, "going to these events alone isn't considered acceptable. It's just not done. So I was wondering…would you go with me?" this last part came out as a small squeak.

Shinji blinked, surprised. That sounded a lot like a date. "What?"

"Please," Mayumi said, clasping her hands together in an almost prayer-like gesture. "If you don't escort me, I'll end up with some complete snob. I always do. Please, just once I'd like to actually enjoy myself a little at one of these things."

Shinji hesitated for a moment. As a general rule, he hated parties. They were too loud, and he was always uncomfortable to one degree or another. He could just imagine how out of place he'd feel among all the wealthy and powerful people who would certainly be at this event.

On the other hand, Mayumi was a good friend. She was the only person that Shinji felt sure sought out his company simply because she enjoyed it, and that meant a lot to him. He didn't like the idea of her having to tolerate some rich jerk all night because he had bailed on her.

And it apparently _wasn't_ a date after all—not really. She just needed a guy to go with, and she had asked him because he was probably her only good male friend. Part of him was disappointed by that, he discovered, but another part was also relieved.

He looked at the adorable pleading expression she was giving him and resisted the urge to sigh.

_Who could say no to __**that**__? _He wondered.

"All right," he said at last. "I don't see why not."

Mayumi smiled. "Thank you, Shinji," she said. "It's at the manor, and it starts at seven this Saturday night. Oh, and it's black tie."

He blinked. "Black tie?"

"That means the guys are supposed to wear tuxedos," Mayumi explained. "That won't be a problem, will it? If it is, I'm sure I could have Motomu take you to someplace to rent one." She added quickly.

"No, no, that's fine," Shinji said at once, turning down the offer without really even thinking about it.

"Thanks a lot, Shinji," Mayumi said. "I really appreciate this."

They reached their classroom and parted ways at this point, the Third Child going to sit by Toji and Kensuke.

"Well?" the otaku demanded the moment Shinji approached.

"Well what?" he asked, mildly annoyed at his friend for skipping the greeting entirely.

"Aw, c'mon, Shinji," Kensuke said, sounding almost desperate. "You know what I mean."

"Look, Kensuke, I didn't participate in the battle against the Angel at all," Shinji said. "So, I really can't tell you anything about—"

"No, not that," the freckled boy said, waving a hand around in a dismissive gesture. "I meant about Batgirl. It seems like everybody in the whole city saw you with her yesterday except me. Everybody's saying that she flew in then used her laser vision to drive off an army of assassins trying to kill you and the other pilots."

Shinji gaped at him, stunned silent for several seconds. On some level, he supposed it wasn't surprising. The people who'd been unfortunate enough to be on the streets while he and the caped crusader had been speeding through the city had doubtlessly told other people what they'd witnessed. Those people had eventually told others, who'd told still others, and the story had doubtlessly grown with each retelling.

Still, Shinji couldn't help but be surprised that Kensuke had apparently swallowed some exaggerated version of the tale.

Though, he wasn't quite sure _why_ that surprised him.

"Batgirl doesn't have laser vision," he said. "She can't fly, either."

"So you _did_ see her!" Kensuke exclaimed triumphantly.

Shinji groaned; he could feel a headache coming on. The Third Child glanced at Toji, hoping for help calming the otaku down, but the jock didn't appear to be paying attention to the conversation.

"Yes, I saw her," Shinji admitted, then reluctantly started to tell the whole story to his friend.

Though he made a point of failing to mention that the Light of the Divine, who had easily kidnapped _him_, had entirely failed to abduct Asuka and Rei. Toji and Kensuke just didn't need to know that.

"So she doesn't have any powers?" Kensuke asked.

"Not unless you count being obscenely skilled and having a really impressive arsenal of equipment," Shinji said.

Kensuke silently digested this information for a second. "You know, this actually makes her that much more impressive," he decided. "I mean, to do the kind of things she does without any kind of special powers…that's crazy awesome."

Shinji just gave a small, noncommittal grunt by way of reply. He was wondering if he could still snatch a few minutes of sleep before class started. His desk was looking like a very comfortable pillow at the moment.

"You know what we should do?" Kensuke asked, then immediately answered his own question. "We should go out on Saturday night—you know, walk around the city—and see if we can bump into Batgirl."

This sounded like the stupidest idea imaginable to Shinji, but he was too polite to say so, even while sleep deprived. So he was quite grateful that he could honestly claim a prior engagement.

"Sorry, I'm busy Saturday night," he said.

"NERV has you working on Saturday night?" Kensuke asked with disbelief.

"No," Shinji answered, suddenly uncomfortable. "I'm, uh, going to this party with Mayumi that night."

The otaku blinked in surprise, then glanced at the girl in question. "Really?" he asked.

Shinji frowned slightly. "Yeah."

Kensuke shook his head. "Yamagishi's a nice girl and all," he said, speaking in a sotto voice so she couldn't hear him, "but I gotta tell you, if _I_ was an EVA pilot—_and_ lived with Misato—well, I wouldn't exactly be pursuing _her_."

Shinji's frown deepened. He knew, of course, that Mayumi was not exactly the most striking girl in their class, but he thought it was mean of Kensuke to come out and say so out loud.

However, he wasn't quite sure how to articulate the sentiment without making it look like Mayumi was his girlfriend. "It's not like that," he said instead.

Kensuke shrugged, willing to let the issue drop. Apparently, he had a much easier time believing _this_ denial than he did when Shinji had stated, months back, that Rei wasn't his girlfriend.

"How about you, Toji?" he asked the jock. "You up for it?"

Toji blinked, focusing on what his friends were saying for the first time since before Shinji had entered the classroom. "What?" he asked.

"I'm thinking about going Bat-hunting on Saturday night," Kensuke informed him. "Wanna come with me? Shinji can't go because he's busy then."

"No thanks, Ken," Toji said. "I'm busy on Saturday, too."

Kensuke sighed. "Great, guess I'm going by myself, then."

Toji frowned. "Don't try that alone," he said. "You'll get yourself killed or something."

The otaku scowled, clearly insulted that his friend had such a low opinion of his ability to survive. "And what makes you think that?" he asked.

Toji gave him a look. "Because you'll get over excited about it and do something really stupid," he said.

"When have I ever behaved like that?" Kensuke demanded.

Both Shinji and Toji gave him a look.

"Oh, c'mon! That time I convinced Toji to go outside with me during an Angel battle so we could watch it doesn't count!" the otaku exclaimed.

"Why not?" Toji retorted.

The sensei walked in right then, and the class rep's usual shout cut off the discussing before it could turn into a full blown argument, much to Shinji's relief.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, a small truck was pulling up to a service entrance of the Light of the Divine's headquarters. It was a yellow truck, with the letters "DHL" on the side, and as such not an unusual sight.

However, this wasn't an ordinary delivery truck. In fact, there wasn't a single genuine delivery within it. What _was_ inside was a group of men, just over a dozen in number, dressed in DHL uniforms. Though the uniforms were genuine, they themselves were about as legitimate as the truck.

The moment the vehicle came to a stop, one of the men in the back stood and addressed the others. Captain Iwao Chiron, the Chief of Section Two, looked like he was about to burst out of his DHL uniform, which was probably a size too small for his large frame.

"Gentlemen," he began.

There were a few muffled snickers from the other Section Two agents. The men before him were a lot of things, but 'gentlemen' was not one of them.

Chiron ignored them and went on. "As you know, the Light of the Divine recently attempted to abduct all three Evangelion pilots—whom we have standing orders to protect—and _did_ successfully kidnap the Third Child," he said. "This is a serious black mark against the honor of this organization."

Scowls replaced the snickers. On average, few members of Section Two felt very much actual loyalty to NERV. The organization paid them to spend most of their time standing around and looking threatening, as well as conducting the occasional violent act. It was a job they liked, but none of them were likely to take a bullet for the Commander, if it came to that.

However, they understood vengeance. Of that, Chiron was quite sure.

"Now," he continued, "this organization has publicly denied having anything to do with yesterday's incident. NERV and the Tokyo-3 police are investigating them, and when that investigation is complete, Commander Ikari will, of course, make sure that this organization is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"In the meantime," Chiron went on, "NERV's official stance is that the Light of the Divine and its members are innocent 'til proven guilty. NERV officially acknowledges the fact that the Japanese government allows for a high level of religious freedom."

The other Section Two members smirked malevolently; they knew the other shoe was about to drop.

"_Unofficially, _however, the Commander has decided that these crazy bastards are just too damn dangerous, and that at least some of them need to die, in order to send a message to all the other crazy bastards about what happens when they screw with NERV," Chiron said. "Which is where we come in."

A quiet cheer went up inside the truck. It would have been louder, but the agents knew better than to make a lot of noise and risk making their targets suspicious about what might really be inside the delivery truck. They should; Chiron had handpicked them himself.

The Commander had been less than pleased upon discovering that his Section Two Chief's orders had jeopardized the life of the Third Child the other day. There had been extenuating circumstances, of course, and Gendo Ikari didn't fire people on a whim.

Still, Chiron had decided that it would _prudent_ for him to try and earn a few brownie points by leading this mission himself.

"Standard black ops rules apply," he told the men. "If you're caught, NERV will disavow your ass. And if any of you have your NERV IDs on you, ditch them now."

No one had brought their cards with them, Chiron was pleased to see. It was a surprisingly common mistake for the men in Section Two to make, unfortunately.

"Everybody locked and loaded?" he asked. Upon getting a round of confirmation, he nodded. "Then let's go kill some cultists."

The men quickly got out of the van and placed a number of cardboard boxes upon a large cart they'd brought with them. Doing their best to look like ordinary wage slaves, they made their way inside the building and to the lobby.

The woman sitting at the front desk frown at them but didn't seem alarmed. It was apparently unusual for the building to receive such large deliveries.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

Chiron immediately noticed the pin on the woman's blouse. It was either gold or brass, and it was in the shape of a yellow flame with lines of light radiating out from it. It was the Light of the Divine's symbol; the woman was a member, rather than just a person the cult had hired to answer the phone for them.

_Fair game,_ he thought and was about to signal his men when one of them, without bothering to take note of the pin, decided to take the initiative.

"Why, yes you can help us," he said. "I believe you have an appointment with Misters Smith and Wesson."

Without giving the secretary the chance to respond, he quickly drew his gun and shot her twice in the chest, killing her instantly. The gun didn't have a silencer on it, and the reports were deafening inside the lobby.

Chiron rolled his eyes at the man's theatrics. _He's not even using a Smith and Wesson, for god's sakes,_ he thought.

Before he could muse further on how he was stuck commanding a pack of amateurs, however, the Chief of Section Two heard the unmistakable sound of footfalls. Clearly, someone had heard the gunshots and was heading toward them.

"Boys, I think you know what to do," Chiron said.

The agents grinned and reached into the boxes they'd brought with them, pulling out machine guns that had been converted for fully automatic firing. They all took aim.

The door burst open, and a half a dozen members of the Light of the Divine barged inside, carrying pistols.

"All right! Nobody move, or…" the leader of the small squad of cultists trailed off, turning white as he saw the group of Section Two agents.

Chiron resisted the urge to snicker. "Fire," he ordered.

The violence that followed was nothing short of incredible.

* * *

A few days later found Batgirl cruising through the dark streets of Tokyo-3 on her new batcycle. She had recovered from the concussion she'd sustained quite well, if she said so herself, and she was fully ready for action once more.

_Though if Motomu had his way, I'd be at home resting right now,_ she thought, a ghost of a smirk on her face.

Of course, what the butler didn't understand (or refused to believe), was that this _was_ restful for her. None of the punks she was likely to meet while simply wandering about could cause her to so much as break a sweat, and she honestly felt more comfortable with the cowl on rather than off. At least while she was Batgirl, she could be herself, instead of having to play the role of the painfully shy girl.

It also helped that Batgirl never had to deal with that faux shyness seemingly becoming real when she was around a certain Evangelion pilot…

A low growl escaped her throat, and she quashed _that_ thought before it went any further. She tapped the side of her cowl, and suddenly her earpiece crackled to life with the familiar sounds of a police scanner.

"Calling all available units, there is a hostage situation in progress at the corner of Ogata and Main. Suspects are believed to be armed and extremely dangerous."

"Perfect," she said to herself, switching off the scanner and turning toward Ogata Avenue.

She parked her batcycle a few blocks away from the scene of the unfolding crime, then completed the trek by scaling a building and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It wasn't difficult to spot her destination; a half a dozen police cruisers were parked outside a small jewelry store, red and blue lights flashing.

Batgirl paused on a rooftop next to the shop, taking a moment for a bit of brief reconnaissance.

_Well, this wasn't planned out, or at least, it wasn't planned out very well,_ she decided, immediately noticing that the place had a skylight on the roof.

Her target was close enough that she didn't need to use her grappling gun in order to reach it; she could have just jumped. However, stealth was needed to avoid tipping off the criminals as to her presence, and the grapple was quieter. Soon, she was swinging through the dark night air, landing lightly on top of the jewelry store.

Creeping over to the skylight and being careful not to get into the path of the moonlight – lest she cast a shadow that would make it glaringly obvious to the people inside that someone was above them – she peered inside.

The caped crusader instantly took note of the many display cases which had been ruined, the glass shattered into hundreds of pieces which littered the floor. Two men in black clothes stood near the center of the showroom, both of them holding pistols.

The first robber had his gun pointed at a pair of professionally dressed people; one man and one woman who probably worked at the store. The second criminal was speaking to his partner, and though Batgirl wasn't able to hear what he was saying, he was waving his hands about in obvious agitation.

It didn't take long for the dark lady to put the pieces together.

_Botched smash and grab,_ she decided at once. _They broke in and started taking things, but the police showed up before they could make their escape, and they panicked and took hostages._

This meant they didn't go into this with an exit strategy for the situation they were currently in.

_And _that_ means they're desperate and on edge,_ she thought grimly. _Probably have itchy trigger fingers, too._

Quickly deciding that she needed to bring an end to this situation immediately, Batgirl reached into her belt, taking out a glass cutter and a suction cup. Attaching the suction cup to the glass of the skylight, she carefully cut out a circle of glass around it. Silently, she lifted out a glass, leaving a small hole in the skylight.

Then she took a small dart gun out of her belt and pointed it at the robber who was keeping his weapon directed at the hostages.

_Say goodnight,_ she thought and fired.

There was a brief _phhf!_ sound as the dart left her gun, embedding itself into the neck of her target. The man let out a cry of surprise and pulled out the dart, holding it up before his face.

However, he didn't have much time to examine the thing; he began to waver on his feet almost immediately, feeling the effects of the powerful sedative the dart had contained. Within moments, he was collapsing to the tiled floor.

Batgirl was moving well before he hit the ground, glass shattering with a terrific crash as she leapt through the skylight and into the building. Her booted foot collided with the second robber as she went down, knocking the man off his feet. He scrambled to get up, but the dark lady was too quick for him, hitting him with her taser before he moved against her. The man writhed briefly and then joined his comrade on the floor.

"Are you all right?" she demanded of the hostages.

"Y-Yes," one of them stammered, obviously as afraid of her as he'd been of the armed robbers. The other could only nod in the affirmative.

"Good," Batgirl said, "let the police in to cuff these men, will you?"

Then, without further ado, she fired her grappling gun. The hook caught on the metal frame of the now destroyed skylight, and Batgirl easily left the way she had come in. By the time the police had entered the building to arrest the criminals, she had made it back to the batcycle.

_A good start for the night,_ she decided as she climbed on and started the motorcycle's engine.

However, she hadn't gone very far before she heard her radio crackling to life. "Mayumi-san?"

"What is it, Motomu?" she asked.

"How are you?" he asked.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Fine," she said. "I told you that I'm completely recovered."

"I'm glad you're well."

"Is this just a social call, or is there something that requires my attention?" she asked.

"A man has arrived at the manor, asking to speak with you," Motomu said. "He has informed me that he represents Mr. Cobblepot."

"Ah, finally," Batgirl said. "I trust you didn't send him away?"

"I would never send a guest away from the manor without your explicit instructions to do so," Motomu replied, sounding mildly affronted that she had even felt the need to ask.

"Good," Batgirl said. "Keep him waiting a little while longer. I'll be back in fifteen minutes, tops."

"As you say, Mayumi-san," he said. "And please, take no undue risks in returning home."

"Of course not," she reassured her butler, then closed the channel and gunned her engine.

She was pulling into the Batcave ten minutes later. Bringing her bike to a stop, she quickly headed to her changing room and exchanged her batsuit for a modest blue dress. Placing her glasses on her face, she headed up out of the cave and was unsurprised to find Motomu waiting for her.

"That was quick," the butler commented.

"Every light I encountered was green," she replied. "Now, I trust our guest is still waiting?"

"Yes," Motomu said. "He is currently making himself comfortable in the drawing room."

"Excellent," Mayumi said, heading toward the room in question to greet her guest.

She found the man right where Motomu had left him, sitting on a plush couch and picking at a plate of hors d'oeurves that the butler had apparently set out for him.

The Penguin had chosen his envoy carefully, Mayumi thought as entered the drawing room. The man was dressed in an impeccable, navy blue suit, and he was movie star handsome. He was also about six feet, three inches tall, and looked like he was made of about three hundred pounds or so of solid muscle.

All in all, he was the perfect sort of man to charm or intimidate the mousey teenage heiress as needed.

As she approached him, Mayumi silently calculated how many seconds it would take her to completely incapacitate the man.

_More than six seconds, less than eight,_ she decided. _Without the use of the batsuit, of course._

"Greetings," Mayumi said, offering the man a very slight bow as he rose from the couch. "I'm sorry you were kept waiting. If you had called before you arrived…" she trailed off, reaching a hand up to push her raven locks away from her face, and in so doing, broke eye contact with the man.

The Penguin's messenger smiled. "Ah, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself," he said. "My name is Katsu Abe."

"Please, Abe-san, sit. There's no need to stand on my account," she said, and once he did as she asked, Mayumi took a seat in a chair across from the couch. "I hope the food was to your liking."

"It was exquisite," Abe said, smiling and displaying perfect white teeth. "Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of spending too much time enjoying your hospitality. I'm afraid I must get right to business."

"And what business would that be?" Mayumi asked softly, still not making eye contact with her guest.

"Well, I'm in the employ of a Mr. Oswald Cobblepot," Abe began.

"He's the owner of the Iceberg Lounge, isn't he?" Mayumi asked.

Abe smiled, looking pleased that Mayumi had heard of his employer. "That's correct," he said. "As a matter of fact, Cobblepot-san has asked me to inform you that there is a table permanently reserved for you in the VIP section of the club."

"That's very kind of him," Mayumi said, "but I doubt he would send you here just to tell me that. And I also don't see what kind of business we could do, I'm afraid. Yamagishi Enterprises isn't in the entertainment industry."

"Ah, well, Cobblepot-san has investments in fields other than the Tokyo-3 nightlife," Abe said. "You see, Yamagishi-san, I was sent here tonight to offer you…protection."

Mayumi knew exactly what the man was referring to, of course. However, the sheltered rich girl she pretended to be shouldn't.

"Protection?" she asked, blinking.

"Oh, yes," Abe said. "Yamagishi Enterprises has recently set up shop in Tokyo-3, hasn't it? But Tokyo-3 isn't quite like other cities, even if you ignore the Angels. There are…hazards here."

Mayumi frowned slightly. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're saying. What sort of hazards?"

"Well," Abe drawled, "I understand you're having some sort of party here this Saturday, correct?"

"Yes, that's right. For a product unveiling. Why?"

"What if something…unfortunate should happen?" Abe asked. "That would be terrible for Yamagishi Enterprises, wouldn't it?"

"Well, I guess," Mayumi said, "but the manor already has plenty of insurance. I don't see what Cobblepot-san could offer me."  
"Ah, but Cobblepot-san is far more…proactive than any insurance company," Abe said, dropping the charming, nice guy act. The temperature of the air around him seemed to drop a few degrees, and his toothy smile suddenly became almost feral in appearance. "In fact, I can _guarantee_ that without his _protection,_ something really _awful_ will happen at that party of yours."

Mayumi's eyes widened in 'realization.'

"Oh," she said. "Oh, I see."

Abe's smile widened, but it didn't make his face look more pleasant. If anything it did just the opposite. Nevertheless, he was clearly quite pleased that she'd finally grasped his meaning.

"So," he said, "would you like to purchase Cobblepot-san's _protection_? For you, there's a special offer. Only ten million yen to start."

"No," Mayumi said softly.

Abe blinked, clearly taken aback. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.

"Yamagishi Enterprises will never pay _one_ yen for that kind of 'protection,'" Mayumi said coldly. "Let alone ten million."

Abe's eyes narrowed. "Are you quite certain that's a wise decision, Yamagishi-san?" he asked. "Something truly _terrible_ could happen without Cobblepot-san's protection."

"I'll take that chance," Mayumi said. "Now, if you have no other business here, I suggest you allow Motomu to show you the door."

"You're going to regret this, Yamagishi-san," Abe growled as he got up. "Perhaps after Saturday, you'll see how much you need Cobblepot."

"I doubt it," Mayumi said, as he was ushered out of the room by her butler.

_Well, __**that**__ took forever,_ the raven haired girl mused.

Moments later, Motomu returned from the task of seeing Abe out. "Well, now you've done it," the butler said without preamble.

Mayumi chose to ignore the tone with which the remark was delivered. "Indeed," she said, "right on schedule, too."

"You realize, of course, that you're taking a rather significant risk here, don't you?" Motomu asked. "After all, it won't just be the usual crowd of business elites at this gathering. The young Ikari-san will be present, along with your other special guests."

"I know," Mayumi said, resisting the urge to sigh. "But it's a risk I have to take if I want to accomplish all my goals, and I _am_ confident in the manor's security. Besides, I'm going to be endangering a lot of people with this maneuver. It wouldn't work without the bait. If I'm not willing to endanger people I care about along with the stuffed shirts, then I have no business doing this at all."

* * *

"Misato, I'm sure it's straight enough," Shinji said.

"Oh, quit complaining, and just let me do this," his guardian replied as she continued to adjust the bowtie on his rental tuxedo.

Shinji resisted the urge to sigh and did his best to stand perfectly still. For countless men, having one's clothing adjusted by a woman was routine, but Shinji wasn't one of those men. Misato's close proximity was rattling his nerves, which were already jangled by the knowledge that he was about to attend a high society party.

The fact that he could smell his guardian's lavender perfume wasn't helping anything, either.

"There," Misato said, finally stepping back to appraise her handiwork, much to Shinji's relief. "You clean up very well, Shinji."

Shinji thought he looked ridiculous in the tuxedo; he felt as out of place in it as a vagrant in an emperor's clothes. However, he flushed at the compliment anyway. "Thank you," he said softly.

Misato smiled warmly at him, and the teasing Shinji expected didn't come.

"You're growing into quite the young man," she said instead, patting his cheek. "Now are you sure you don't want me to drive you?"

"I'm sure," Shinji said, "but thanks."

Somehow, the thought of being dropped off at this super formal event by his guardian was nothing short of mortifying. That, and he was pretty sure that her driving…_skills_…would only heighten his anxiety.

"Okay," Misato said, then added in a sing-song voice, "have fun on your _date_ tonight, Shinji-kun."

Secretly, he was glad that Misato was finally acting normally and teasing him. But that didn't mean he was going to act like it.

"It's not a date!" Shinji protested.

"Of course it's not," his guardian replied, in a tone that made it very clear she didn't believe him at all. "Now go, have fun at this party with your…friend."

She made shooing motions. Part of Shinji wanted to continue the argument, but the greater part of him decided (as usual) that discretion was the better part of valor. He took the opportunity to depart and left the apartment.

_Here's hoping I don't bump into Asuka in the elevator,_ he thought.

The Second Child had gone out earlier that night, and she had been in a particularly bad mood, for some reason Shinji couldn't guess at. He was sure that, in her current state, Asuka would tell him that he looked every bit as absurd as he felt, and he did _not_ need that right now.

Fortunately, his fears were never realized; he made it outside the apartment building without seeing a trace of the redhead.

"Taxi!" Shinji called as he reached the street, and a cab soon stopped to pick him up.

He normally would have taken a bus, but he could just imagine everyone else on it staring at the kid in the tux. And he might as well spend his money on cab fare; it wasn't like he used it for much else.

"Where to, kid?" the driver asked, not even batting an eye at Shinji's attire.

Shinji gave the man the address to Yamagishi Manor, and soon they were approaching the grand mansion. However, it immediately became clear that the taxi wasn't going to be able to pull up to the front gates any time soon. The long, paved path leading up to the front door was completely clogged with high end cars, as well as a few limousines. The expensive vehicles were even spilling out into the street and threatening to disrupt the flow of traffic.

The cabbie released a low whistle at the sight.

"Um, you can just let me out here," Shinji said.

"Yeah, sure thing, kid," the cab driver replied.

The Third Child paid the man his fare, then quickly scrambled out of the cab and approached the manor on foot. The place was swarming with rich people. Shinji reached up and self-consciously smoothed his hair back, feeling very out of place despite the tuxedo.

_Great, everyone's looking at me,_ he thought, noticing the number of surreptitious glances people were throwing his way.

It wasn't hard to figure out why. He was, after all, well below the age of anyone else he saw there. People were probably figuring out that he was the hostess's…escort for the evening. Likely they were wondering who he was, to even be able to receive such an honor.

_Please don't let them find out I'm an EVA pilot,_ he silently pleaded to any deity that might be listening.

By this point, he'd finally managed to wade through the sea of people to reach the front door. A large, impeccably dressed man he didn't recognize stood there, holding a clipboard.

"Name, sir?" he asked.

"Shinji Ikari," the Third Child answered.

Shinji felt so out of place that he wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if the big man had told him that he clearly didn't belong there and would have leave. Instead, he briefly consulted his clipboard and said, "Ah, yes, please, go right ahead, sir."

Shinji entered. The interior of Yamagishi Manor looked strangely alien to him that night; he was used to seeing it during the day with only Mayumi and the butler there. The finely dressed people all seemed to be heading in one direction, so he went with the flow.

_Whoa,_ Shinji thought a moment later.

He found himself standing in a grand ballroom, which he hadn't even realized existed until that moment.

_I knew this place was big, but I didn't realize it was __**this**__ big,_ he mused as he looked around.

The center of the room was dominated by a large dance floor, where couples turned and swayed gracefully to the music provided by a live band. Various tables were set up around the dance floor, providing places for people to sit and eat. A stage had been set up by the room's far wall. It was probably where the actual product unveiling Mayumi had told him about would take place, but it was empty at the moment.

_And where __**is**__ Mayumi, anyway?_ He wondered, looking around.

Unfortunately, there were over a hundred people in the great room already, and Shinji couldn't seem to pick out the unobtrusive girl. He considered asking one of the servers where she was, but they were moving around the room at an almost dizzying pace. The Third Child suddenly had a vision of himself trying to flag one down, and instead causing the man to drop his tray of hors d'oeurves everywhere.

The fear of making a scene like that robbed him of any will to pursue that course of action, and Shinji sighed. Momentarily at a loss for what to do, the Third Child instead focused on what would get any teenage boy's attention.

The buffet table.

Quite a spread had been set up by one of the walls. The smells wafting over from it were heavenly, and he could see beef, lobster, and other expensive dishes. Clearly, he wouldn't get a chance to eat this well again for some time.

He was just about to start making his way to the food when someone caught his eye. It was another boy about his age, or at least, he thought it was. If he was an adult, he was a pretty short man. His back was turned, so Shinji couldn't see his face, yet there was something about the guy…

"Shinji?"

He jumped, jolted from his thoughts by the soft voice. He turned and saw a girl standing next to him.

It took him a few seconds to realize that she was Mayumi.

_Wow,_ he thought.

The black dress she was wearing showed no hint of cleavage and actually had sleeves, which made it far and away the most modest garment he'd seen on any woman at the party. However, it still showed her figure much better than her school uniform did, and that figure was more well developed than Shinji would have guessed.

She was wearing a little makeup, too. Not much, just enough to accentuate her facial features somewhat. He also noted that her usual glasses had been exchanged for another pair with much thinner, more stylish frames.

It was a pleasant effect, he decided. Mayumi looked good, but not so changed that she seemed like a completely different person.

"Shinji?" she said again. "Are you all right? You look a little…dazed."

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I just…" he glanced back at the buffet tables, but the person who'd caught his eye had gone. "…thought I saw somebody I know." He finished lamely.

"There are a few NERV officials here tonight. Maybe you saw one of them?" Mayumi suggested.

Shinji felt a chill run down his spine at his friend's words, and he looked around nervously. "My father's not here, is he?"

"The Commander? No," Mayumi said, looking amused at the very thought.

"Oh, good," Shinji said, relieved.

An awkward pause ensued.

"Um, thank you for coming, Shinji," Mayumi said softly. "I know this isn't exactly your kind of thing."

"You're welcome," Shinji said. "Um, you look nice, Mayumi."

She blushed and turned her head, hiding her face behind the dark curtain of her hair. It was a familiar gesture by now, but she only held it for a moment, and soon turned to meet his eyes again.

"Thank you," she said, "you look nice, too, Shinji."

Now it was his turn to blush. He could feel his face growing hot.

"Well, I have to go make the rounds," Mayumi said, before another awkward silence could take hold. "You can go and get something to eat, if you'd like. I'll come find you when I'm done."

"Wait a second," Shinji said. "'Make the rounds'?"

"I'm the one throwing this party, Shinji," she said. "I have to go and greet people and stuff. You're welcome to come with me if you want, but it doesn't seem like something you'd enjoy."

_No, it doesn't_, Shinji silently agreed, then scolded himself. The whole point of his presence at Yamagishi Manor that evening was to support his friend. He wouldn't exactly do that if he spent the night stuffing his face.

"I'll come with you," he said, "I'm not that hungry."

He nervously offered her his arm. She smiled at him and took it. "Thank you," she said, too softly for anyone but him to hear.

"You're welcome," he said. "Just…please don't tell anybody I'm a pilot, okay?"

"Deal," Mayumi said.

* * *

Meanwhile, a few blocks away from Yamagishi Manor, a van sat beneath a blown out streetlight. It was an unassuming vehicle; unmarked and slightly broken down looking, there was nothing about it that would draw a passerby's attention.

But, of course, appearances could be deceiving. For inside the back of the van sat the most powerful crime boss in Tokyo-3. And he was not alone.

"What does our man inside say, Juro?" the Penguin asked the man with him.

Juro tapped at the headset he was wearing. "He says that the place is looking pretty crowded already. Party's in full swing."

The Penguin smiled, and released a sound that was not, in truth, very dissimilar to the "warks!" made by Misato Katsuragi's avian house pet. "Excellent, excellent," he said, plucking the cigarette holder from between his teeth. "Is our man in a safe position?"

"Yes, Cobblepot-san."

"And the girl?" the Penguin asked.

Juro quietly conveyed the question to their man inside the manor, then waited a moment to receive the answer. "She's safe, too. Other side of the ballroom."

"Good, good," Penguin said. "After all, the point of this little exercise is to scare the girl. Obviously, killing her wouldn't serve that end."

"So should I detonate the bomb, boss?" Juro asked.

"Yes," the Penguin said, smiling cruelly.

Juro immediately took out a small remote control and punched in a series of buttons. He and the Penguin waited.

Then Juro's eyes widened. He tapped at his headphones. "Say again," he demanded.

"What is it?" Penguin snapped, his features shifting into a scowl.

"The bomb," Juro said. "It didn't go off. It must've been a dud."

Of course, the explosive device Juro had planted inside Yamagishi Manor had _not_ been a dud. It had, however, immediately been found by the lady of the house, who had partially deactivated her extensive security system to allow Juro access in the first place. The now defused bomb currently sat in the batcave, where the caped crusader planned to analyze it extensively. After that, she would hand it over to the police in hopes of starting up an investigation that would eventually lead to the Penguin and his organization.

But, naturally, Juro had no way of knowing that.

"And this is why I always make sure to have a contingency plan," Penguin grumbled, putting his cigarette holder back between his teeth. "Alert our man inside that he'll have to do more than serve as our eyes and ears tonight."

"Yes, Cobblepot-san."

* * *

"Is it always like that for you at these things?" Shinji asked Mayumi quietly.

The two of them had finished "making the rounds" a few minutes ago and had sat down at one of the tables to eat. The food was nothing short of exquisite, but Shinji discovered that he had little appetite. The experience he'd just gone through had been…somewhat unsettling.

"Yeah, that's pretty much always the way an event like this goes," Mayumi replied, her tone just as soft as his had been.

Shinji just shook his head. Everyone they had spoken to had been perfectly polite and pleasant, but it had clearly been a facade. He had seen a calculating look in every eye; people had looked at him with veiled curiosity. Mayumi had been as good as her word, introducing him as simply "a friend" to everyone, but no one had believed that the heiress to the Yamagishi fortune would allow someone who wasn't of great importance to escort her.

_They're probably still wondering who I __**really**__ am,_ Shinji thought. _Bet they think I'm the son of some business man or something._

Mercifully, no one had suspected he was an Evangelion pilot, which only would have made the whole experience _more_ uncomfortable.

_Of course, compared to what Mayumi had to put up with, nobody ever gave me a second glance,_ he mused.

"Everybody was so…" Shinji trailed off, unable to find the right word. "It was like they were searching for some weakness of yours they could exploit, even as they were smiling and saying how nice it was to see you."

Mayumi shrugged. "These people play high stakes games for massive amounts of money," she said. "None of them would hesitate to take advantage of me for their own gain if they could figure out how. It's one of the reasons I try to avoid having anything to do with running the business."

"Oh," Shinji said, unable to think up any other response to that.

Mayumi smiled at him. "Usually I have to deal with my date doing the same thing to me all night," she said. "It was really good to have someone whose company I actually enjoy with me, for a change."

Shinji just blushed and said nothing, somewhat flustered by the vague implication that he was her date for the evening.

"Thank you," Mayumi continued. "I know this isn't your sort of thing."

"Oh, you're welcome," he said.

She looked like she was about to say something else, but a soft buzz cut her off. It was the sound of a cell phone that had been set to vibrate, Shinji realized as Mayumi fished reached into her pocket. Taking the phone out, she checked the text message she had received and then got up from her chair.

"The actual unveiling of the new product is about to happen," she told him. "I need to say a couple of words before I can turn it over to the spokesman. You just sit tight."

She walked off, heading for the little stage with the podium on it that had apparently been erected for just this occasion. Shinji sat back in his chair, getting comfortable, and suddenly realized that he had no idea what the product being unveiled that evening actually _was._

He frowned, then gave a mental shrug. _I probably won't even understand exactly what it does, anyway,_ he thought.

So far as he knew, Yamagishi Enterprises mostly made high tech components for different products, including EVA. If the thing being unveiled was a computer chip or something, well, it would mean nothing to Shinji.

Mayumi reached the podium, and a spotlight shone down on her while all the other lights in the room dimmed just enough to get everyone's attention. A hush fell over the crowd.

The raven-haired girl looked fantastically uncomfortable being the center of attention. Shinji, who could easily imagine how _he_ would feel in a similar situation, felt an immediate stab of sympathy. He wished he could have spared her from this experience somehow.

"G-Good evening, everyone," she said softly, "if I could say a few words…I'd be a better public speaker."

Laughter rippled through the crowd, but it was purely of the polite variety; the joke had been a complete dud, and Mayumi knew it, judging by the look on her face. Shinji cringed slightly.

Mayumi cleared her throat and continued. "Ahem, anyway, as many of you know, I'm Mayumi Yamagishi, your hostess for the evening, and tonight we're unveiling a new product, a very special product. But I'm sure you're all tired of listening to me stumble through this…"

Looking around, Shinji noticed a few people nodding in agreement.

"…so let me turn this over to my spokesman Shiro Tokita," Mayumi finished.

The bespectacled girl retreated from the podium, allowing a tall man in a suit to take her place. He looked far more at ease there than Mayumi had.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you, Yamagishi-san, for that lovely introduction," he began. "Now, a few of you might recognize me from the Jet Alone demonstration some months ago."

Shinji frowned slightly in confusion. This guy had taken part in the JA demonstration? He was sure that Mayumi's company wasn't the one that had built the giant robot.

"As you can see, I recently changed jobs," Tokita said, as though reading Shinji's mind. The comment elicited a couple of polite chuckles from the crowd. "Now, I don't want to say anything negative about my old employers, but I have to say, I truly enjoy working for Yamagishi Enterprises. Not only does this company help to develop and make the technology that humanity needs to defend itself from the forces that would destroy us, but they also take that same technology and find uses for it that can vastly improve the quality of life for thousands of people."

The man's speech continued in this vein for several minutes, all without telling the crowd what the mystery product actually was. Shinji's interest was briefly piqued when Tokita revealed that the technology he kept going on about had originally been developed for the Evangelions, but he soon allowed himself to zone out.

He wasn't the only one, and the spokesman seemed to sense that he was losing the crowd. "But I'm sure you'd much rather _see_ the benefits of this new technology than listen to me talk about it all evening," Tokita said. "So, allow me to present to you the first recipient of our new product…Miss Mariko Suzuhara!"

Another spotlight came to life and shone down on a young girl with dark hair, who smiled out at the crowd and walked over to the podium to stand next to Tokita.

It was a good thing that Shinji was sitting, because if he'd been standing, he would have fallen down.

Mariko Suzuhara had _walked_ over to podium.

_But…but how could that be?_ He wondered. _Her legs were amputated._

Yet they were right there, beneath her, as plain as day. She was wearing a fancy blue dress that came down to a bit below her knees, and the parts of her legs that Shinji could see looked perfectly normal.

_Is this a different Mariko Suzuhara?_ He wondered briefly, before realizing she wasn't alone.

Toji was near the stage, dressed in a tuxedo and looking every bit as uncomfortable as Shinji felt in his own monkey suit. A pair of other men waited with him, and the family resemblance was too strong for them to be anyone but his father and grandfather.

_Toji…Toji was the one I saw over by the buffet tables, earlier,_ he realized.

"When the First Battle of Tokyo-3 occurred," Tokita started speaking again, "young Suzuhara-san here was badly injured. Her wounds were so bad that she eventually lost her legs as a result of them."

The spokesman was just as long winded as before, but this time, Shinji hung on his every word as he tried to figure out how this miracle had happened. He was eventually able to gather that Mariko was wearing very advanced prosthetic legs, which she was able to directly control with A-10 connector clips, like the kind he wore to pilot EVA.

Shinji hadn't even noticed she was wearing the things until he'd known to look for them. The clips were black, and they were nearly invisible in her dark hair.

_Amazing,_ he thought, unable to stop gazing in wonderment at the little girl who had been made whole again.

Tokita's speech eventually wrapped up with him pledging that Yamagishi Enterprises would provide Mariko with all the replacement prosthetics she would need for the rest of her life, completely free of charge. The people applauded, the lights went back to their normal level of brightness, and everyone started getting off the stage.

Shinji craned his neck to look at the Suzuhara family and saw they were disappearing through one of the doors out of the ballroom. Mayumi, however, was coming back toward him, a smile on her face.

"Mayumi…" he began, then found he couldn't continue. He didn't have the words to properly express how incredible what she'd done was.

Fortunately, she seemed to get it anyway. "The thought controlled prosthetics were coming down the pipe, and when you told me about what happened to Toji's sister, I decided I would nudge the board toward picking her for the demonstration."

"You did?" he asked dumbly, then felt like an idiot for asking the question.

_Of __**course**__ she did, stupid. Did you think Toji's sister getting picked for this was a coincidence?_ He thought to himself.

Mayumi didn't comment on his failure to connect the dots, though. "Yes," she said. "Though thankfully I didn't have to do a whole lot of cajoling. Mariko's a perfect poster child for the things, being a cute little girl who was injured in an Angel battle."

"You're amazing," he blurted out.

Mayumi blushed furiously and looked down at the table, apparently unable to meet his eyes. "Would you like to go see the Suzuharas?" she asked. "I sent them off to a private room so they wouldn't get mobbed."

"Yes, thank you," he said.

She led him out of the ballroom and down the hall, stopping at one of the doors. "They're in here," she told him.

"You're not coming?" he asked.

Mayumi shook her head. "I can't be away from my own party for more than a minute or two," she said. "You go ahead."

She headed back to the ballroom. Shinji watched her go, then he took a breath and walked through the door. He found some kind of study inside, but he didn't have time to examine the room very closely.

"Shin-man!" Toji said when he saw his friend. "C'mon in. We were just celebrating."

The jock pressed a glass of champagne on him. Servers had been handing them out all night at the party, but Shinji had abstained, even though each one barely contained one swallow. Now he drained the glass in one gulp.

"Dad, Grandpa, Mariko-chan, this is my friend Shinji, the EVA pilot," Toji introduced the Third Child. "Shin-man, this is my family."

"It's good to meet you at last, Ikari-san," Toji's father said, giving Shinji a quick bow. "Toji's told us so much about you."

Shinji automatically returned the gesture and muttered some polite greeting in response, wondering the whole time if Toji had ever told his father and grandfather how their first meeting had _really_ gone.

"Hi," Mariko said cheerfully, bouncing up to him. "Are you really an EVA pilot?"

"Um, yeah," he said, taking the opportunity to get a better look at her new legs. The illusion wasn't quite as good from close range; he could see now that they didn't look exactly like real flesh, though a casual observer might not realize it. "Sorry about what happened to you." he added in a low voice.

"It's okay," she said at once. "It was an accident, and I'm good as new now, anyway."

"How long did you know about this?" Shinji asked Toji.

"For a while. I really wanted to tell you about it, but Yamagishi made me swear I'd keep quiet. She wanted to surprise you," he rolled his eyes.

Toji's father grinned. "We're grateful to her, of course, but it's obvious she didn't do this for any of _us_."

"I take back what I said about her before," Toji said to Shinji, speaking under his breath. "Hang onto that one."

Shinji flushed and was about to say that he and Mayumi were just friends, but Mariko spoke up before he could.

"You're only saying that because you know she's rich now!" the little girl exclaimed crossly. "If you didn't know that, you still wouldn't think Shinji should give her the time of day!"

"Mari-chan!" Toji hissed, looking chagrined.

"It's true, isn't it?" Mariko demanded.

The argument was brought to a premature end when the door to the room opened, and a man that none of them recognized entered. He was wearing a tuxedo, which marked him as one of the guests at the party, but he looked very pale, almost sickly.

"Sir?" Toji's father said. "Are you all right?"

"The party's back in the big room," Toji's grandfather put in gruffly.

The man didn't make a reply. He just gazed around the room, a strange look in his eyes.

Then he rushed forward toward Mariko. Before anyone could react, he had knocked the A-10 connector clips from her head, causing her prosthetic legs to go limp beneath her. The little girl would have fallen, but the man wrapped an arm around her torso, holding her up.

Unsurprisingly, the Suzuhara men made a great deal of noise about this.

"Hey!"

"Get away from her!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

All three of them looked like they were about to charge the man who had dared to attack the little girl. However, they stopped short when he drew a pistol and pressed the weapon to the side of Mariko's head with a shaking hand.

"**N-Nobody move!**" he commanded. "Anybody takes a step forward, and I ventilate this kid's skull."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Whew, been a while since I posted an update, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Things (mostly the holidays) have conspired to make things really crazy for me both at home and at work lately.

Anyway, down to business. I think Batgirl vs. the Ninth Angel was more awesome in my head before I wrote it all down, but I hope it's still pretty good anyway. Also, I know that several people have been expecting Kyodai to kidnap Shinji in order to get to Mayumi, but that was never really part of the plan. The guy works for Gendo and takes it as a given that Shinji is off limits as a result. And honestly, I'm not sure Gendo would give him the okay to abduct his son and use the poor kid as bait to trap Batgirl. At the very least, Shinji is a pretty useful component in the scenario to Gendo. Mayumi's just a potential threat he's trying to neutralize at this point.

**Zoro50**, you make a very valid point about the concussion, and if I was going to write the last chapter again, I'd probably tone down Mayumi's injury. On the other hand, shrugging off things that would stop someone else cold is just what Bats _does_. I remember reading "Batman: Year One" a while ago. It was full of incidents where the inexperienced Bruce Wayne took some pretty knocks; things like getting shot right in the thigh, and, yes, getting cracked in the head. And it barely slowed the guy down, let alone stopped him.

**Mabra4628,** well, the way I see it, any Evangelion pilot is useful and difficult to replace (except for Rei, of course, she's easy to replace, but Gendo does have at least some affection for her and doesn't want her to die needlessly). So NERV would take at least some precautions to try and prevent unforeseen losses of the pilots, thus why Asuka and Rei would receive some self-defense training.

**Dennisud, **no this Mayumi isn't a nephilim. But then again, I don't think the Mayumi from "Second Impressions" really was either. She had the core of Angel inside her somehow, but she herself was not one. I think.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well. Now let's have some fun!

* * *

Omakes!

Right Move, Wrong Time

"There's a teargas gun in a holster on my belt," she said. "It's on my right side. Take it."

"What?" he asked, obviously confused.

"Just _**do**_ it," she growled at him.

"Um, okay," he said.

He reached over and fumbled for the weapon, his fingers clumsy thanks to both his awkwardness and the unusual position they were in. He was trying very hard not to touch her hip, but while he _did_ manage to succeed in that, his excessive caution caused him to touch something else. Something just below her belt. Something that was almost perfectly round, and possessing a firmness that other women would regularly sweat and strain in the gym to try and achieve.

Shinji let out a small yelp and pulled his hand back.

"You're cute, and dangerous chases _do_ get me all hot and bothered," Batgirl said, "but don't you think you should wait until _after_ we get through this alive to make your move?"

Shinji didn't respond, at least not verbally. A jet of blood burst forth from his nose, and he suddenly collapsed forward, his limp body draped over Batgirl.

"Well...crap," the caped crusader said.

* * *

Mistaken Identity

Meanwhile, a few blocks away from Yamagishi Manor, a van sat beneath a blown out streetlight. It was an unassuming vehicle; unmarked and slightly broken down looking, there was nothing about it that would draw a passerby's attention.

But, of course, appearances could be deceiving. For inside the back of the van sat the most powerful crime boss in Tokyo-3. And he was not alone.

"What does our man inside say, Juro?" the Penguin asked the man with him.

Juro tapped at the headset he was wearing. "He says that the place is looking pretty crowded already. Party's in full swing."

The Penguin smiled, and released a sound that was not, in truth, very dissimilar to the "warks!" made by Misato Katsuragi's avian house pet. "Excellent, excellent," he said, plucking the cigarette holder from between his teeth.

* * *

_Meanwhile, several blocks away..._

Pen-Pen was napping. This was something Pen-Pen did often, which wasn't a surprise, considering that he had no actual responsibilities aside from lightening the mood in the apartment, and that his living quarters were arguably nicer than the ones his human roomies had.

Under such circumstances, wouldn't you nap a lot, too?

Anyway, one thing that Misato (and for that matter, everyone else in Tokyo-3), didn't know about Pen-Pen was that he was capable of picking up sounds outside of the human hearing range. It was an ability his unique species of penguin used to help them communicate in the wild.

And just as Cobblepot was releasing a series of cackles, the waterfowl's eyes snapped open. It looked around wildly.

_...Daddy?_ Pen-Pen wondered.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eight:** Rescue Mission

"N-Nobody move! Anybody takes a step forward, and I ventilate this kid's skull."

Those words, combined with the pistol that was pressed to Mariko's temple, brought three generations of Suzuhara men up short. Toji, as well as his father and grandfather, had been on the verge of charging the man for threatening the little girl, but now the situation had become a lot more complicated.

Not to mention a lot more potentially deadly.

_No,_ Shinji thought, watching the scene play out in a state of mute horror. He couldn't believe that this was happening. Toji's sister had already suffered enough; she couldn't fall victim to some madman now that she had miraculously been made whole again!

"Okay, Mister, just calm down," Toji's grandfather said, his tone remarkably even and reasonable, given the circumstances.

"I am calm!" the man hissed, even though he looked anything but. He was sweating heavily, and his hands were shaking.

He looked, in Shinji's opinion, like a man who was likely to do something stupid if he was provoked just a little bit.

"Of course you are," the eldest Suzuhara agreed at once. "Now, why don't you just explain why you're doing this?"

"I…I can't do that," the man stammered. "I have no choice. P-Please believe me, I don't want to do any of this."

"Then let my sister you go, you creep!" Toji exclaimed.

The jock took a step toward the armed man, who tensed in response. For a heart stopping instant, it seemed like the guy was going to pull the trigger simply out of panic. Then Toji's father put a hand on his shoulder, stopping the boy, and the situation relaxed slightly.

The gunman took a deep breath, trying to collect himself. "Okay," he said, in a steadier voice than anyone in the room had heard him use yet. "Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to leave this room. You're going to stay here. Count to one hundred. _Slowly_. When you're done, you can leave if you like. If I see you coming after me, I'll shoot her."

"Why are you doing this?" Toji asked, his voice soft now. "We…we don't have a lot of money or anything."

"I told you, I have no choice," the man replied, and he sounded so morose that the jock almost believed him. "Now, come on, girl."

Mariko, whose prosthetic legs were limp and useless because her assailant had knocked the control clips out of her hair, had no choice but to go with him. He shut the door behind himself and was gone.

"What the hell?" Toji exclaimed into the heavy silence that followed.

Shinji didn't think he'd ever seen his friend quite so distraught before, not that it was hard to figure out why. The sheer randomness of what had just happened only served to make it worse somehow.

"Who's going to count?" he asked quietly.

"I will," Toji's father volunteered, then began to softly mutter to himself.

"As soon as get out of here, we're going to try and find a phone so we can call the police," Toji's grandfather informed Shinji. "You should probably go and tell Yamagishi-san what happened."

"Right," Shinji agreed.

What followed was the longest 100 seconds (give or take) in the lives of any of the four trapped in the room. When Toji's father finally finished the count, the jock immediately threw open the door and left the room, looking around frantically. He was both relieved and disappointed to find no trace of either his sister or her captor.

"Come on," his father said, and the three Suzuhara men took off in search of a phone, Toji quietly cursing the fact that none of them had brought a cell to the fancy party.

Left alone, Shinji just stood there for a few seconds, still feeling shocked by what had happened. He was aware, painfully so, that Mariko wouldn't have been at Yamagishi Manor at all if she hadn't been injuring during the First Battle of Tokyo-3. His first battle.

Then he abruptly remembered that he had his own task to perform and went rushing back to the ballroom. A number of the other guests turned to stare at him as he burst in, then went frantically searching for Mayumi, but for once, Shinji couldn't have cared less about something like that.

"Mayumi!" he hissed, finally finding her chatting with a rotund businessman in a tuxedo a size too small for him.

She turned to him, a look of surprise on her face that immediately transformed to one of concern when she saw his expression. Muttering some quick excuse to her previous conversation partner, she led Shinji a few paces away from the man.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Somebody's kidnapped Mariko!" he hissed.

Mayumi's eyes widened. "What?"

As quickly as he could, Shinji explained what had occurred to the bespectacled girl. By the time he was done, Mayumi's face was pale with horror.

"I have to go, talk with the people I have working security. It's unlikely that they stopped him—everything's set up to keep uninvited guests out, not keep people in, and there are plenty of side doors you can unlock from the inside—but maybe somebody saw him leave or something," she said in a great, nervous rush.

"I'll come with you," Shinji said.

"No!" she said, a little too sharply. She winced at his surprised and hurt look. "No, the only thing that could make this situation even worse is if we inspire a panic, and the two of us rushing off will make everyone jump to conclusions. You stay here and…act natural."

"Um, okay," Shinji replied, not quite sure if he followed her logic or not.

Mayumi departed from the ballroom, moving at as brisk a pace as she felt she could without everyone think something was up. The reason she'd given Shinji for not wanting him to come hadn't been a _completely_ empty excuse.

Once she was out of the ballroom, though, she took off in a sprint toward her study.

_Damn, damn, damn!_ She thought, gritting her teeth. _I got complacent after I found that bomb, thinking the Penguin wouldn't try anything else! Now if something happens to that little girl, it's on my head!_

She arrived at the Batcave in record time, practically tearing off her expensive dress in her haste to get into her Batsuit. Yet even as she was changing, she activated the computer she had down in the cave, using it to access the manor's surveillance system. With luck, it would help her figure out which way the kidnapper had gone.

"I won't let anything happen to you, kid," she said as she hurriedly suited up. "I promise."

* * *

Isao Ito was most definitely _not_ having a good night, he decided as he carried the terrified and mercifully silent girl through the dark streets outside of Yamagishi Manor.

It had all seemed so simple when the Penguin had first asked him to be a spy at the party. Isao had been told that the likelihood of him having to do anything other than report on the status of the gathering was extremely slim. He'd expected to walk away from the event, with no one having even the slightest clue that he'd done something wrong.

_If only that stupid bomb had gone off like it was supposed to,_ he thought.

Isao would have refused the Penguin's command to kidnap the girl at the heart of the evening's product demonstration—now that four people besides his victim had seen his face, he was sure he was doomed to spend quite a lot of time in prison—but Cobblepot had a great deal of dirt on both himself _and_ his son.

In other words, he was going to prison either way, but at least his son stayed a free man if he followed this course of action.

"Doesn't mean I have to like, though," he muttered to himself.

Well, at least things were going fairly smoothly. The van where he knew his accomplices lurked was exactly where it should be, and he pounded hard on the doors.

"I have the girl!" he said. "Let me in!"

The door to the van opened, and Isao suddenly found himself face to face with a scowling Oswald Copplepot.

"What you doing here?" the man demanded, somehow keeping the cigarette holder securely clamped between his teeth as he spoke.

"I…I got the girl," Isao repeated nervously.

Penguin let out a loud, angry squawk. "You fool! You weren't supposed to bring her here! I can't be involved with this!"

"Then what—?"

He was cut off as a dark object slammed into the side of the van with a metallic _clang,_ instantly lodging itself into the vehicle's door. Isao jumped when it hit, then he frowned, wondering what the hell it could be. Squinting slightly so as to be better able to see the object in the dark, he abruptly realized that it was a piece of metal in the shape of a…

"It's the Bat!" Cobblepot squawked suddenly.

Isao turned his head just long enough to see that _something_ was definitely approaching the van. He couldn't make it out entirely; in the darkness, it looked like a living shadow, not a person.

However, he was willing to take the Penguin's word on it. Without bothering to ask for permission, Isao jumped into the van, practically pushing the yakuza boss aside in his haste.

The Penguin didn't appreciate this at all, but with Batgirl getting nearer with every second, he didn't have time to argue.

"Go, you ignoramus!" he barked at the driver, and the man gladly slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The van took off with a squeal of tires.

* * *

"Damn," Batgirl hissed as she watched the vehicle take off.

In her haste, she had decided to pursue the kidnapper on foot, gambling that she'd be able to catch him before he reached his getaway car. Clearly, that was a wager she had lost.

Which certainly didn't mean she was giving up; far from it. The caped crusader paused only long enough to press a concealed button on her utility belt before taking hold of her grappling gun and firing it at the nearest tall building. Seconds later, she was on the roof, looking down at the street below.

_There it is!_ She thought, spotting the van that Mariko's kidnapper had escaped in.

The driver was going recklessly fast, but he still had to weave through some fairly heavy traffic, as well as deal with any other obstacles present.

Batgirl, on the other hand, had a far less obstructed path. The dark lady began to run, leaping from rooftop to rooftop at top speed, and just managing to keep pace with the getaway vehicle.

_I can't risk losing them,_ she thought grimly.

Then, as though triggered by the thought, the van took a sharp left turn at an intersection, nearly getting hit by several other cars and setting horns blaring in the process. Batgirl only had to survey the buildings around her for a second to realize that she couldn't hope to grapple over to a new path. Clearly, a different approach was required.

She leapt off the side of the building she was currently on, grabbing hold of her specially designed cape as she did so. The black material immediately fanned out, and Batgirl was gliding through the air above Tokyo-3.

Unfortunately, she only had one chance at this; her Batsuit wasn't equipped with anything that would allow her to gain altitude; if she hit the ground before she reached the van, she would lose the criminals.

"Can't let that happen," she muttered as she knifed through the air at speeds that most other people would've found dizzying.

It only took her a few moments to draw close to the van, but by that point she was only about ten feet or so above the traffic on the street. If she had taken her eyes off her target, she would have seen several motorists gazing up at her in shock.

Unfortunately for her, they weren't the only ones who saw her. A pair of thugs inside the van opened the vehicle's rear doors and pointed guns at her.

Batgirl felt a powerful and unpleasant sense of déjà vu, her mind briefly flashing back to the time she'd rescued Shinji from the Light of the Divine.

Then the men opened fire, and Batgirl had to veer sharply to the side in order to avoid the hail of bullets.

However, she was truly getting low to the ground by this point, and she realized a moment before it was too late that this maneuver would _just_ cause her to collide with another car in the next lane over. Reacting with lightning quick reflexes, the caped crusader threw out her arm, her palm landing on the hood of the vehicle. With one strong push, she was able to flip herself over the car rather than simply crash into it, finally coming to a stop on the sidewalk.

The dark lady was on her feet again just in time to watch the van tear around another corner and vanish from sight

"Time for Plan B, then," she muttered to herself, utterly ignoring the passersby that had stopped their journeys down the sidewalk to gawk at her.

A moment later, the Batcycle pulled up near her, without a rider. She made a mental note to make sure whoever invented that homing beacon device got a fat bonus soon.

Without a word to the crowd, Batgirl got onto the motorcycle and peeled off down the street.

Several blocks away now, the van continued to travel through Tokyo-3, the batarang that the caped crusader had thrown at it still imbedded in the side. A small red light on the device that had been installed into the weapon blinked regularly.

* * *

"What were you thinking, coming back to us?" Cobblepot squawked angrily. "Did you think I _wanted_ to run the risk of being captured by the authorities, never mind Batgirl?"

Once he'd been confident that they were finally rid of Batgirl, the Penguin had ordered his driver to stop at a remote section of the city so he could gather her bearings. The rotund crime lord and his entourage had gotten out of the cramped van, the henchmen taking their young captive with them. The Penguin was a firm believer in never taking eyes off of a hostage.

"I don't do this sort of thing regularly, you know," Isao replied defensively, "and you didn't exactly give me very detailed instructions on what I had to do after I kidnapped the girl. How was I supposed to know?"

"Imbecile, I assumed you'd realize that I didn't want to be connected to this," Penguin hissed.

Isao sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Well, I can't do anything to change things now," he said. "But I did get the girl, and we did escape. So, what now?"

The Penguin didn't answer immediately. His goal had been to ruin Yamagishi's little party in a devastating fashion, in order to teach her the consequences of not paying for his protection. As such, he had expected and hoped that a panicked Isao would hole up somewhere with the little guest of honor, then, after making a huge spectacle of himself, eventually surrender to the police.

Of course, Isao would never be willing to play that part if the Penguin openly handed him the script, and the man coming back to him had thoroughly scrambled his plans.

Clearly, there was only one thing to do.

"Kill the girl," Cobblepot ordered his men.

The child gasped. Isao's reaction was a little more assertive. "Now wait a minute!" he exclaimed, putting himself between the Penguin's men and the girl. "If you murder her, they'll think I did it! I'll go away for the rest of my life!"

"Well, as they say, Isao-san, thems the breaks," Cobblepot quipped. "Do it, boys."

"No!" Isao shouted, but one of the Penguin's hired thugs quickly grabbed him and restrained him.

The other approached Mariko, drawing a long, wicked knife. The little girl whimpered and tried to scurry away, but she couldn't move very quickly with her prosthetic legs reduced to dead weight.

The man thrust downward with the knife.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, as a metallic clang filled the air, something striking his hand and causing him to drop the blade.

"It's the Bat!" Isao exclaimed, even before he'd seen that the piece of metal which had struck the knife was, indeed, a batarang.

"Back into the van!" Penguin exclaimed.

It was too late to make another escape, however; before any of them could even set foot inside the vehicle, another pair of batarangs emerged from the darkness, each one puncturing one of the van's rear tires. Obviously, it wasn't going anywhere.

"You two, stop her!" Penguin commanded his goons as he grabbed the girl's collar and retreated with her.

* * *

Batgirl resisted the urge to swear as she watched the pair of thugs advance toward her as Cobblepot ran off; that was about the last thing she'd wanted to happen. She'd wanted to get closer to the group before she made her move, but the Penguin's order to murder Mariko had forced her hand.

_At least __**he's**__not making a nuisance of himself,_ she thought as she glanced at Isao, who was just standing there, with a shocked expression on his face.

Then the Penguin's two thugs were on her. Releasing a low growl, Batgirl ducked under a fist the size of a breadbox as one of the men took a swing at her, then swept out her leg in a low kick, sending him sprawling to the ground. A quick burst from the small taser she carried ensured that he wouldn't be getting up again any time soon.

However, she was just a second too slow, and the other man reached out and grabbed her, getting her into a full nelson hold. Batgirl responded by cracking him in the chin with the back of her skull, creating an audible sound of bone knocking on bone. The man grunted in pain, his hold on the dark lady loosening, and she easily managed to free herself. Before he could react, she leapt into the air and kicked him right in the chest, sending him, too, sprawling to the ground. Like the first man, she treated him to a taser shock to keep him where he was.

_Now for the big bird,_ she thought, narrowing her eyes. Even in the middle of the brief fight, she had seen the Penguin racing into a nearby apartment building, and she now she took off after him.

She found that the glass door to the building's lobby had been shattered, and by a bullet, if she didn't miss her guess.

More conveniently, it looked like the Penguin had stepped in a puddle of water that he been left there by a janitor. The plastic sign warning of the wet floor had been knocked askew, presumably by her fleeing quarry. It didn't take the world's greatest detective to figure out where he was going from _that_ trail.

"The roof," she said softly to herself, leaving the building once again and grappling up to the highest point on it. She reached the top just as Penguin was arriving through more conventional means, Mariko held in one arm.

"Hello, Penguin," she greeted him.

"Batgirl," he replied, casting an aristocratic scowl in her direction. "You are the first person who's dared to call me by that name to my face in many years."

"It's over," she told him flatly. "Let the girl go, and maybe the police will be lenient."

He smirked. It was not an expression that complimented his doughy face. "My dear, I'm sure you have me mistaken with lesser individuals," he said. "People such as myself do not go to prison."

"Let the girl go," Batgirl growled slowly.

"As you wish," the Penguin said, then viciously threw Mariko Suzuhara over the side of the building.

_"NO!"_ Batgirl shouted, breaking out into a sprint.

She launched herself over the roof as hard as she could, then went diving through the air toward the screaming little girl. Mariko was flailing about as much as she could, making herself less than aerodynamic, but it was still going to be a close thing. The building that Penguin had thrown her off of hadn't been that tall.

_I won't let you die,_ Batgirl silently vowed to herself, even as the two of them grew perilously close to the street. _Just a little closer…_

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her gloved hand wrapped around the little girl's skinny arm, and Batgirl fired off her grappling hook. Even as it caught, she thought that she'd been too late, that they were going to hit the pavement and shatter like eggs anyway.

The rope pulled taut. For just a fraction of a second, Batgirl and Mariko were suspended mere inches above the street. The headlights of an oncoming car shone brightly upon them, and the sound of the vehicle's horn filled their ears.

Then they were sailing upwards again. Batgirl hadn't had a chance to aim very carefully with her grappling gun, and as a result, she wasn't entirely sure where they were going. She and Mariko ended up landing in an undignified heap on some random rooftop.

_I hope no one else saw that,_ Batgirl thought as she pulled herself off the ground.

"Are you all right?" she asked Mariko.

"My arm hurts," the girl grimaced.

"It might just be sore, or you might have a pulled muscle," she said. "Either way, it's better than being dead."

"Yeah," she said. "Thanks for saving me. How did you get there so fast?"

The dark lady smirked beneath her mask, tempted to say that she'd just been in the neighborhood. However, she knew it would be better to use the opportunity to deflect suspicion away from her alter ego.

"I'd heard that Yamagishi refused to pay off the Penguin," she explained. "I decided to stake out the party to try and make sure the girl's stupidity wouldn't bite anyone. Now come on, let's get you back to your family."

* * *

"You're kidding!" Kensuke exclaimed, the next day at school.

"I am not," Toji said firmly, shaking his head in clear amusement at his otaku friend's disbelief. "Everything I told you really happened."

The three stooges, plus Mayumi, were currently sitting at one of the tables outside the school building and eating lunch, and Toji was giving the others the play by play on what had happened the previous night. Kensuke, of course, was listening to the whole thing with rapt attention.

In truth, though, even Shinji was interested, since he hadn't known about some of the later details. He'd been there when the kidnapper had struck, of course, but he'd been stuck in the ballroom for the rest of the evening. He hadn't even known that Mariko had been rescued until Mayumi had returned and told him, and she'd only been able to pass along rumors that Batgirl had been involved somehow. He certainly hadn't known that the city's caped crusader had personally returned the little girl into the arms of the Suzuhara men.

"Then what happened?" Kensuke asked, eager for as much information as he could get.

"We all took our eyes off of Batgirl for one second—and I swear, one second was all it was—and she _disappears_. Just like that! Poof! After that," he shrugged, "we had to go to one of the Yamagishi Enterprise labs. Mariko's prosthetics got a little banged up, and they wanted to make sure the things were still calibrated, or whatever."

"The whole thing didn't even disturb the party," Shinji put in, with a rueful shake of his head.

"Aw, man!" Kensuke groaned. "I can't believe that both you guys have gotten to see Batgirl now, when I never even got a glimpse of her! You two are so lucky."

"Kensuke, I almost died the day I saw Batgirl, and Toji's sister was kidnapped last night," Shinji reminded him, somewhat crossly.

Both the EVA pilot and the jock were used to their friend's enthusiasm for almost suicidal activities, but this was still just too much.

Perhaps sensing his friends' irritation, Kensuke decided not to press that particular issue any further. "So," he said, turning to Toji, "did Batgirl have, like bat wings or claws or anything?"

Toji groaned. "Ken, I thought we'd settled that after Shinji saw her," he said. "No, she's a normal, _human_ girl."

Kensuke was not deterred by his friend's obvious exasperation. "Well, then, here's a question about Batgirl that Shinji always refused to answer," he said. "Was she hot?"

Toji smirked lecherously. "Extremely hot," he confirmed.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah," the jock said. "All the stories really don't make you think she would be, but I gotta tell you, she totally is. That black costume she goes around wearing is almost skin tight, and she's got this awesome, tight little body." He used his hands to trace the shape of an hourglass in the air.

"Excuse me," Mayumi said softly, quickly getting and departing.

"What's with her?" Kensuke asked, blinking at the bespectacled girl's retreating back.

"I think you guys talking about Batgirl like…that made her uncomfortable," Shinji answered.

"Aw, man," Toji groaned. "Chasing her off's the last thing I wanna do, after she gave my sister her legs back. I just…forget she's here sometimes. She's so quiet."

"I'll go after her," Shinji said, rising from his seat.

"Apologize for me, will ya, Shin-man?" Toji asked.

Shinji agreed, then went striding off across the schoolyard after Mayumi, soon locating her under the shadow of a large, leafy oak tree.

"You okay?" he asked as he approached her.

"I'm fine," Mayumi said quietly.

"Um, I hope that Toji and Kensuke didn't bother you," he said. "That's just how they are, I guess, but I know they try and knock it off when they're around you. They don't mean any harm by it."

"Oh, no, it's not them," she said, shaking her head. Then she hesitated. "Well, maybe a _little_ bit."

Shinji chuckled, but he sobered quickly. "So, what else is bothering you?" he asked.

"A yakuza man came to me before the party, offering to sell me 'protection'," she explained. "I turned him down."

Shinji's eyes widened. "You did?" he asked, surprised.

Certainly, if _he_ had as much money as Mayumi clearly did, and a crime syndicate had demanded a tribute from him, he would've paid up, and without hesitation.

Mayumi nodded. "Yes, I just couldn't stand the thought of handing over money—money my parents earned—to those criminals," she said. "But if it hadn't been for Batgirl…"

"But Mariko's all right," Shinji said immediately, making his voice as firm and assertive as he could.

He was only too familiar with the kind of guilt his friend was suffering from, and Shinji hated the thought of Mayumi enduring it. Especially considering that Mariko had ended up perfectly fine in the end.

"I didn't think me refusing to pay that man would endanger anyone but me," Mayumi said quietly, looking down at the ground.

"But she's okay, everybody's okay. Please, don't beat yourself up like this, Mayumi," he pleaded with her.

She didn't answer, at least not with words. Instead, she looked up at him, meeting his eyes again, and gave him a small smile. The sight encouraged Shinji.

"So," he said, "are you going to pay them the next time?"

Mayumi shook her head. "No, I'm not," she said. "In fact, I'm pressing charges."

Shinji did a double take. "What?"

"If I thought that they'd still be interested in Mariko, then I would," she quickly assured him, "but I don't think they'll care about her now that the party's over."

"Okay, but what about _you_?" he demanded.

"I can hire more security," Mayumi said. "I won't let them get away with kidnapping a little girl, and I still have no intention of letting them slowly bleed my parents' company dry with demands for 'protection' money."

Shinji shook his head. "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this, will I?" he asked.

"No, you won't," she said, shaking her head. "The men the police caught have agreed to testify against their boss, so it's a golden opportunity to put him in jail where he belongs."

She left out the fact that they were only doing so because Batgirl had returned to them shortly after dropping off Mariko Suzuhara in order to "persuade" them to aid the authorities in assembling a solid case against their employer.

Shinji shook his head. "You're a lot braver than everybody gives you credit for, you know that?" he asked.

"Huh?" Mayumi asked, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"Well, everybody thinks that you're, well, pretty meek," Shinji said, "but here you are, planning to take on the yakuza. It's…scary, but also pretty impressive." He admitted.

She blushed, her cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink, but she didn't retreat behind the curtain of her long hair as she usually did. "I could say something similar about you, you know," she remarked.

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked with a frown.

"Well, I know that Soryu thinks you're not very brave, and I've even heard your friends say that you're not a 'real man' because you don't drool over Misato-san like they do," Mayumi said. "But you pilot an Evangelion to defend all of humanity. That's not exactly meek."

"Aw, I'm not brave," Shinji said bashfully. "I just pilot EVA because I have to."

Mayumi gave him a small smile. "Maybe we're both braver than we give ourselves credit for."

* * *

"Batgirl," Cobblepot hissed, angrily tossing that day's copy of _The Tokyo-3 Tribune_ onto his desk.

He managed to knock three of his cherished drinking bird figures to the floor with the maneuver, but he couldn't care less about that at the current moment.

The rotund businessman and crime boss hadn't believed in the dark lady at one time, had thought she was just another urban legend. However, he'd had associates and friends in Tokyo-2 who had known otherwise, and they'd convinced him she was real. As he hadn't chosen where to build his new criminal empire at the time, Penguin had decided to make Tokyo-3, not Japan's new capital, his headquarters.

Yet even when rumors had started circulating that Batgirl had relocated, Cobblepot hadn't lost sleep over it. True, she could probably meddle with his operations, get his men arrested, and generally be a thorn in his side. However, he hadn't believed for a moment that her actions could threaten him, personally.

The _Tribune_'s top story said otherwise.

"High Society Crimes!" the headline blared.

"Cobblepot Subpoenaed in Kidnapping Case. Charges May Follow." The subhead added.

_How could last night have gone so catastrophically wrong?_ He wondered.

Isao was keeping his trap shut so far; thankfully, the man remembered what would happen to his son if he spoke to the authorities. However, his two henchman had shockingly sung like partridges, and of course, the little brat had given his description to the police.

_I'll have to grease a lot of palms to avoid prison,_ he thought grimly, face contorting into a scowl. _A __**lot**__ of palms, and my reputation may never recover._

Clearly, he decided, Batgirl needed to die before she could cause him any further headaches.

He was just about to start working on that when the city's Angel alarm went off.

* * *

"The Tenth Angel is currently in orbit, and is nearing Tokyo-3," Misato briefed the pilots. "For the last several hours, it's been dropping parts of its mass to Earth, figuring out how to aim itself. The MAGI estimate that it's going to launch a kamikaze attack on the city in the near future."

"How big is it?" Asuka asked at once.

"It out masses an EVA by several orders of magnitude," Misato answered.

"Mein Gott," Asuka said softly, quickly doing some rough estimates in her head. "So what's the plan?"

"I've already ordered the evacuation of the city," Misato said. "There's going to be some collateral damage no matter how well this goes. I want you three to intercept the Angel before it hits the ground and take out its core. That way, there will be no AT field impact, just the standard one that results from something very big hitting the ground."

"Intercept it?" Asuka echoed before Misato's plan became clear. "You want us to try and catch the Angel with our hands?"

"That's right," Misato said.

"What if the EVA's can't stand the impact?" Asuka demanded.

"Then we'll be in trouble," Misato answered, perhaps a bit too cheerfully.

"What if we can't figure out where it's going to fall?" Shinji asked.

"Then we'll be in trouble," Misato repeated.

"What are the odds of this succeeding?" Asuka asked.

"I have no idea," Misato said, smiling. "Not very good, I'd guess."

That response obvious didn't fill the Second Child with a great deal of encouragement. "If we pull this one off it'll be a miracle," the Second Child grumbled.

Misato frowned. "Miracles aren't something that just happen," she said sternly. "They're something that we make happen."

Heavy silence hung in the air for several seconds before Misato spoke up again. "I won't order you to do this mission," she said. "You can refuse if you wish."

Shinji, Asuka, and Rei all remained completely silent.

"I see," Misato said. "In that case, regulations state you should have a will written up. Have you done this already?"

"I don't need to write a will," Asuka scoffed. "I'm not going to die out there."

"There's no point in my writing a will," Rei said softly.

"I'm not going to write one, either," Shinji said.

Misato nodded, obviously not about to enforce that particular regulation. "In that case, I want you to suit up and report to the cages in two hours," she then brightened and added, "and after the battle's over, I'll treat you all to a steak dinner."

"Really?" Shinji asked. "Wow!"

"That's so nice of you, Misato!" Asuka added sweetly.

Misato nodded. "Well, you all deserve a little something for your efforts," she said, pleased at her charges' reaction, and totally unaware that they were faking their enthusiasm for her benefit. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some preparations to attend to."

With that, she left the briefing room, and was pleased to find Makoto waiting outside for her.

"What's the status of the evacuation?" she asked.

"More than 90 percent complete," the tech answered at once. "There won't be a single person in all of Tokyo-3 in an hour from now, except for the people we need to run NERV, of course."

"Good," Misato said, "because staying here would be insanity for a civilian."

* * *

"Please, Mayumi-san, we really should be on our way," Motomu pleaded, even as his employer rushed from one corner of the Batcave to the other.

"I have to finish this, first, Motomu," she said firmly, not slowing her pace for even a moment.

"I'm sure that the cave's auto-destruct protocol is working quite perfectly," he said, "and in any event, if this Angel destroys the city, I sincerely doubt there's much chance that anyone will find the remains of this place."

"I can't afford to take _any_ chance of that," Mayumi said. "If the slightest piece of evidence that Batgirl once lived on this property survives a catastrophic attack, it could be utterly disastrous for me."

"Yes, but even if that happens, there's no reason to believe that the auto-destruct will fail to vaporize everything in here," Motomu argued.

"I have to be absolutely sure," Mayumi growled, sitting herself down at her computer and booting it up.

The butler hesitated for a moment, then he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. She turned to look up at him, annoyance clearly visible in her dark eyes.

"You can't help him, Mayumi-san," he said gently.

Mayumi's eyes softened, and she turned away from him, looking ashamed.

"I realize that you're not used to being unable to do things, being unable to affect the outcome of important situations," he said, "but this is one instance where both Batgirl and Mayumi Yamagishi are powerless. I'm sure it's a bitter pill to swallow, but staying here in the face of potential doom won't help anything."

Mayumi tensed, and the butler knew she was getting ready to be stubborn.

"He wouldn't want you to stay and put yourself in danger needlessly. It would just give him one more thing to worry about as he goes into battle," Motomu said. "Your parents wouldn't want you to remain here, either."

Mayumi sighed gustily, but Motomu saw through her annoyed facade. "All right, you win," she grumbled. "Let's go."

"I've already taken the liberty of packing a bag for you and loading it into the car," the butler said as they headed for the stairs that led out of the cave. "We should be able to depart immediately."

Mayumi arched an eyebrow. "Were you really that confident that—?"

The ringing of her cell phone cut the raven-haired girl off. Frowning, she removed the device from her pocket and answered it. "Hello?" she asked.

"Hello, little girl," an all too familiar voice responded.

"Kyodai," Mayumi hissed, his face twisting into an angry scowl. "What do you want?"

"To face you," he answered simply. "It's time we settled our battle once and for all."

"Sorry, Kyodai, I was just on my way out," Mayumi replied. "Maybe another day."

"No, you will come and face me now," the Ninja demanded.

"And if I refuse?" Mayumi asked, her eyes narrowing.

"NERV has already deployed the Evangelions to the surface," Kyodai said. "I understand they're going to be on standby until the Angel draws near enough to attack."

"So?" Mayumi demanded.

"I'm waiting by Unit One's power cable with enough C4 to sever it," the Ninja said. "If you do not come within an hour, I will do so. NERV's counterattack will be ruin, and the city will be doomed, as will the Evangelion pilots."

"You'll regret this, Kyodai," she vowed.

"No, I don't think that I will," the Ninja replied smugly. "Don't be late, little girl."

Then he hung up, and Mayumi was left listening to dead air.

"My word, what was that all about?" Motomu asked.

"There's been a change of plans, old friend," she told the butler, as she headed to her little changing room. "Looks like I'm not leaving the city after all."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Wow, Mariko's another one I left in danger for a long time, and now there's another cliffhanger. Hopefully this time I'll get the next chapter out sooner.

Not much else to say here, so, as always, thanks to all my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Nine:** Day of the Bat

Shinji Ikari normally didn't have much of a problem with waiting.

He didn't _like_ it, of course; he didn't think anybody enjoyed just waiting, but he tended to loathe it a great deal less than most of the people he knew.

That day, as he sat in the entry plug of Unit One, he utterly _hated_ it.

_I almost wish this Angel would show up already, just to end this waiting game,_ he thought, looking up at the sky. It was a deceptively peaceful shade of blue. Certainly, there was no hint that the most mammoth Angel that had appeared to date was going to come falling down on top of their heads.

Yet despite that awful knowledge, he wasn't nearly as terrified as he might've expected. Maybe it was because he knew Asuka and Rei would be fighting alongside him. Maybe it was because Misato had recently told him why she had joined NERV, letting him finally realize how much she needed the Angels to be defeated. Maybe it was just because he'd gotten used to Tokyo-3 and didn't want to see it reduced to a smoking crater.

Whatever the reason, he found that he had absolutely no desire to flee.

"I won't run away," he said softly, making a promise to himself.

He had no idea that, not far away, a much smaller but no less consequential battle was also about to unfold.

* * *

The Batcycle's engine roared as the caped crusader headed toward Unit One's power cord. Normally, she had a mechanism that all but silenced the bike, but that day, there was no one else around to hear it.

Tokyo-3 was eerily empty, so the dark lady traded stealth for speed.

It wasn't long before she arrived at her destination, spotting the enormous cable that kept Unit One powered. She parked her bike and proceeded the rest of the way on foot, soon locating Kyodai Ken.

The Ninja stood next to the spot where the power cable first touched the ground. Sitting on the ground nearby was a large crate, clearly labeled C-4. That much plastic explosive would easily be enough to ruin the cable, if not sever it completely.

"Ah, little girl, you came," he observed smugly as Batgirl approached.

"I did," she replied flatly. "I was planning to leave the city along with everyone else, but then I got your call."

The Ninja chuckled. "Of course. I left you no choice but to meet me."

"Hardly," Batgirl sneered.

Before he could react to that statement, a batarang appeared in the dark lady's hand. She threw it with perfect accuracy, and it knifed through the air for a moment, before striking the side of the large crate, easily penetrating the thin wood and disappearing inside the box.

Kyodai heard the beeping from inside the crate and reflexively leapt away just before the explosion.

The batarang blew up; the contents of the large box did not.

The Ninja turned to Batgirl with an expression of shock. "How did you know that there were no real explosives in there?" he demanded.

"Simple," Batgirl replied. "I know _you_, Kyodai. I know that while there isn't much you _wouldn't_ be willing to kill for, there isn't anything that you're willing to _die_ for. If you'd destroyed the power cable, you would've ensured the Angel's victory and signed your own death warrant."

"Very perceptive, little girl," Kyodai scowled. "But why come, if you knew I was never serious about destroying Unit One's power cord?"

Batgirl glared at him, and though the Ninja could not see it through the black lenses in the caped crusader's cowl, he could _feel_ the force of that glare.

"I've come close to catching you several times," she said, "but whenever I do, you do something to endanger innocent people, forcing me to abandon my pursuit of you in order to rescue them. But there aren't any innocent bystanders around now, Kyodai. You set a trap for me, but only you are caught."

"That remains to be seen," the Ninja scowled.

"Not for much longer," Batgirl replied, getting into an attack stance.

For a brief, silent moment, the two foes simply stood there, looking at one another.

Then, at some unseen signal, they charged forward, intent on finally ending their conflict with one another, once and for all.

Several batarangs appeared in the dark lady's hands, the black metal shining in the midday sun. She threw them at the Ninja, and he leaped into the air, moving almost straight upwards in an impressive display of athleticism. At the apex of his jump, he hurled several ninja stars down at Batgirl, who quickly ran out of the way. The sharpened discs of jagged metal struck the sidewalk harmlessly.

"Stealth mode," Batgirl said, and her suit immediately shifted colors, blending in with her surroundings.

She charged toward Kyodai as he landed lightly on the ground. The Ninja could see her; she wasn't invisible, especially not in the middle of a sunny day, but she was a blur. He had a hard time making out her arms and legs, and that allowed the caped crusader to land several solid punches to his torso, followed by a low kick that swept his legs out from under him. The Ninja let out a grunt of pain as he fell to the pavement, landing on his back.

"Damn you!" he hissed. "I will not lose to a child!"

He kicked out with both legs, striking Batgirl in the chest hard enough to drive the air from her lungs and send her staggering several steps backwards. Her image flickered rapidly for a brief moment before her costume again became black as the delicate cloaking mechanism failed.

Kyodai was back on his feet before she'd recovered, advancing toward her. Batgirl's small taser appeared in her hand then, but the Ninja had expected that. He grabbed hold of her wrist, even as the device in her hand crackled with thin tongues of blue energy, then he squeezed. A small groan of pain came from the dark lady, and the taser fell from her hand.

With that threat taken care of, the Ninja seamlessly switched to offense, using his grip on her arm to execute a form perfect jujitsu throw.

Batgirl's agility served her well, and she managed to land lightly on her feet, but one look at the smirk on her enemy's face, and she realized that something was terribly wrong.

The Ninja produced a tiny remote control from somewhere and pressed the lone button on it.

Batgirl heard several soft _"phht!"_ sounds from all around her, and she knew it was poison darts being shot at her even before she spotted the launchers that Kyodai had put up everywhere.

At least a hundred darts were coming at her from nearly every direction, and Batgirl knew that her suit wouldn't offer her much protection from them. They were too slow and too small to trigger the smart material that composed her suit the way that bullets did. She wondered if Kyodai had known that or if he'd just gotten lucky.

Quick as lightning, Batgirl reached down and grabbed the grappling gun at her belt. Taking only a split second to aim, she fired, and the hook quickly latched onto the side of a building. She pressed a button on the gun, and she was quickly pulled upwards. She _barely_ made it into the sky in time to avoid the lethal hail of darts.

"Running away, girl?" Kyodai taunted her.

_Not on your life,_ she thought.

Batgirl released her grip on the grappling gun, and gravity immediately reclaimed its grip on her. She grabbed hold of her cape with both hands, and the material fanned out, catching the wind and slowing her descent.

Scowling, the Ninja threw another handful of shrunkien at her, but Batgirl had expected that. She easily banked right, avoiding the hail of throwing stars, then came to a graceful landing several hundred yards away from her foe.

The Ninja rushed toward her, and Batgirl reached into her utility belt, producing a pair of bolos and throwing them at him. The weighted ropes spun through the air, and for a moment, Batgirl allowed herself to hope that they would bind him.

Then Kyodai drew his katana, and the immaculately well maintained sword easily sliced the bolos to pieces. The weights of the broken things hit the asphalt of the street with a dejected sounding clatter.

"Just like a child, always playing with toys," he mocked her as he drew nearer, blade flashing in the sunlight. "Do you intend to empty that pretty little belt of yours?"

Batgirl didn't reply; she was far too preoccupied with the sword. Kyodai was swinging at her, the blade making a sharp whistling noise as it cut through the air. The caped crusader stepped back, and the weapon missed her by inches.

"Frightened yet, child?" Kyodai asked as he attacked again.

"No," Batgirl replied curtly as she narrowly avoided the second swing.

"Liar," Kyodai said smugly.

He swung and thrust the katana at her several more times, and Batgirl continued to dodge, staying just a hair's breadth away from the lethally sharp edge. However, she was forced to give ground in order to evade the weapon, and it wasn't long before she felt her back making contact with the side of a nearby building.

Kyodai smiled triumphantly, realizing he finally had her trapped.

"Sayonara, little girl," he said, grinning wickedly with triumph.

He swung his katana once more, and it was an attack that was meant to behead her, as Batgirl had suspected it would be.

She brought up a batarang to block the strike. The ring of steel striking steel sounded across the city street, and sparks flew where the two weapons made contact.

_You can't get rid of me that easily, Kyodai,_ she thought, then twisted the batarang. The katana got caught in the "wings" of Batgirl's weapon, and the sword was wrenched from the Ninja's hands. It soon went clattering to the ground.

Before he could react to this unexpected turn around, Batgirl brought up a hand. Pepper spray burst forth from the palm of her glove, striking the Ninja right in the eyes. Kyodai howled in agony and went staggering backwards, clawing at his face.

Despite his obvious suffering, Batgirl didn't hesitate to capitalize on her enemy's vulnerable state. She unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks at the Ninja, finally knocking him down to the street with one particularly hard blow.

Despite the state of agony he was in, the Ninja attempted to get up and counterattack, but he couldn't see properly. Batgirl was easily able to fend off his attack, producing a pair of handcuffs from her belt and easily snapping one around his wrist. She quickly managed to grab his other wrist, then pinned it to the ground with her knee.

She was just about to secure the other cuff when the ground beneath them shook.

* * *

"The Angel's within visual range!" Misato's voice blared through the radio. "Go!"

With a thought, Shinji disconnected Unit One's power cable, and took off, the purple Evangelion immediately breaking into a sprint. The Third Child could see the Angel now; it was still far enough away to look tiny, but he knew that it had to be huge. The beast was wreathed in flame from its descent into the atmosphere.

_I'm the closest!_ Shinji realized, after consulting with a small map that popped up on his HUD. If anyone was going to make it to the Angel before it could hit the ground and the destroy the city, it would be him.

Gritting his teeth, he forced Unit One to pick up even more speed, its feet thundering along the ground and causing the very earth to shake.

* * *

"My god," Batgirl breathed as she watched Unit One sprint past, head and shoulders above several of the nearby buildings.

She had never seen an Evangelion quite so close up before. She had seen the Ninth Angel from nearby, of course, but she had never seen an EVA like this before. To witness something so huge that had been made by the hands of man, and to know that _Shinji_ was currently controlling that behemoth…

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted as Kyodai gave her a firm shove, catching her by surprise. Batgirl silently cursed herself as he scrambled to his feet and took off, the handcuffs swinging from his right wrist.

_Shouldn't have let myself get distracted!_

"Now!" Kyodai cried as the dark lady got up, preparing to go after him.

Immediately, black-suited Section Two agents began to emerge from the nearby buildings, firing pistols at her.

Batgirl grimaced; she'd expected Kyodai to have more tricks up his sleeve than just the darts he'd already employed, but she had no time for this. Not with the Ninja making his retreat.

She ignored the agents that were further away from her; their bullets would leave her with an array of painful bruises later, but her suit would protect her from any greater injury. Several of the men were on her almost immediately, however, and those she couldn't ignore.

The first man to try and lay a hand on her was painfully thrown to the asphalt for his troubles. The next received the last of Batgirl's supply of mace right to his nose and eyes, while the third she knocked out with one tremendous punch to the jaw.

Having bought herself a few seconds, the caped crusader reached into her belt, removing several capsules and hurling them onto the street at the several clusters of Section Two agents. They were a mixture of simple smoke bombs and containers of knockout gas, and it wasn't long before visibly was at near zero, and the sound of the agents coughing filled the air.

"Heat vision," she commanded, and her cowl responded, showing her all the heat signatures around her.

It was a good thing that the Ninja was one of only a handful of man-shaped thermal signatures around, or she might have already lost him. He had put an impressive amount of distance between them already, and he was wasn't slowing down.

Batgirl immediately took off at a sprint, but she paused long enough to press the button on her belt that called the Batcycle. The vehicle caught up with her a few moments later and she smoothly jumped on, roaring down the street after the Ninja. It was only seconds before he was within sight.

"Kyodai!" she called after him. "It's over! Give up!"

"Never!" he snapped at her, looking around wildly for some way to escape her.

His gaze fell upon a nearby apartment building, and he ran toward it, leaping into the air and easily grabbing onto the veranda of one of the second floor apartments. The Ninja quickly pulled himself up, onto the veranda, then leaped to the one, repeating the process.

Batgirl quickly stopped her bike and pursued him, easily replicating the Ninja's feat despite her lesser height. She noticed a certain clumsiness about his movements; he seemed to slightly misjudge the distance he needed to jump more than once, which repeatedly brought him to the brink of disaster. It was obvious that he was still feeling the effects of her pepper spray; he still wasn't seeing quite properly, and he was certainly still in some amount of pain, too.

"You're going to get yourself killed, Kyodai!" she yelled after him.

"That remains to be seen," he retorted snidely.

The Ninja reached the roof a moment later, with Batgirl only moments behind him. From the top of the building, she could easily see the trio of Evangelions as they rushed through the city, as well as the massive Angel that they were hurrying to intercept. Units One and Two were far in the distance, but the blue form of Unit Zero was disturbing close by, and it seemed to be running their general direction.

_Wouldn't it be ironic if the Angel destroyed the city, and my whole battle with Kyodai become pointless?_ She mused for a split second, allowing a tiny, grim smirk to appear on her face, even as she continued her pursuit of the Ninja.

Kyodai Ken was drawing close to the edge of the roof by this point, but he didn't even slow down. The man leaped off the side of the building toward the neighboring structure. He tucked and rolled as he came down, but it was still a rough landing. Batgirl had a much easier time following, using her cape to glide and coming to a much softer landing.

"This is insanity, Kyodai!" she yelled. "How do you expect to escape?"

"I won't lose to a little child like you!" Kyodai retorted, which was, of course, no answer at all.

He leaped to another building, landing no more gracefully than he had the first time. Batgirl continued to give chase, throwing a few of her remaining batarangs at him, but the Ninja managed to avoid the projectiles. He kept jumping from rooftop to rooftop in a desperate bid to escape until he reached what appeared to be the end of the line; all of the neighboring buildings were significantly smaller than the one upon which he and Batgirl stood. Jumping to any one of them would've been foolhardy at best.

"Ready to give up now, Kyodai?" she asked him.

The Ninja hesitated, looking around with his abused eyes before his jaw set and he turned back to Batgirl. "No," he said, before breaking out into a run again.

The dark lady's eyes widened. "No! Stop, you idiot!"

The Ninja ignored her, making the leap from to one of the nearby buildings. Again, he tried to tuck and roll at he landed on the next rooftop, but this time it wasn't enough. Even from so far away, Batgirl was able to hear the distinct snap of a bone breaking, and Kyodai cried out in pain. The man collapsed on the rooftop, clutching at his injured leg.

"Idiot," Batgirl hissed, looking down at him from the safety of her own perch.

Then she turned and realized that the blue Evangelion was headed _directly_ for the building that the Ninja was on. Unit Zero was crushing larger structures beneath its feet as it ran toward the Angel, and it would doubtlessly crush the one upon which Kyodai lay, too.

The caped crusader had abandoned her grappling gun in her flight from Kyodai's hail of poison darts, but she had more rope with her, along with a second grappling hook. She swung it over her head for a moment before casting the hook out toward Kyodai. It landed barely more than a foot away from the Ninja, easily within reach.

"Grab the rope!" she commanded him.

Kyodai didn't move at first, instead just staring at his lifeline. He didn't seem the least bit concerned about the massive Evangelion that was bearing down on him.

Then he contemptuously batted the grappling hook and the rope it was attached to away from himself.

"_Kyodai!_" Batgirl shouted.

"Looks like you were wrong, little girl!" he called back at her, still smug despite everything. "There _is_ something I'm willing to die for after all!"

The dark lady opened her mouth to yell at the Ninja, to tell him not to be stupid and accept her efforts to save him, but she had no more time. Unit Zero reached him then, its massive foot coming down squarely on the building he lay upon and instantly crushing the man. The pilot of the prototype Evangelion never even had a clue that he was there.

Batgirl certainly didn't intend to tell her about it. The caped crusader sighed; she had wanted to defeat Kyodai Ken, but not like this.

Yet there was nothing to be done for it, so the dark lady simply turned in the direction of the Angel and contented herself to watch the Evangelions battle the beast.

* * *

Several hours later, Gendo Ikari stood on a ship at the bottom of the world, watching as the Lance of Longinus was brought up from the frigid polar waters with cranes and loaded onto a large freighter.

He had received the news of the Angel some time ago, and he had quickly decided that NERV's performance in his absence had been satisfactory.

He had even given his son a few words of praise.

It had been a completely calculated decision. He knew full well how needy Shinji was, and what effect even a small compliment from him would have on the boy.

_He hasn't realized how cheap words are yet,_ Gendo thought with dark amusement, a tiny smile quirking the edge of his lips.

That smile soon died. Shinji's loyalty was worth far more than a few empty syllables, but the boy thought so little of himself that he didn't realize that. Thus, Gendo had been able to get it at the bargain price of nothing.

It would have been purely amusing if it wasn't so pathetic, Gendo decided. Shinji wanted and expected so little, even though he had just saved an entire city, and with it, possibly the world.

It had been years since he'd genuinely cared about his son; he'd made a point of separating himself from the boy in the wake of Yui's death, and time and distance had bred indifference. Yet there were times when Gendo found himself wishing he felt the pride and affection for Shinji that he knew a father was expected to feel. This was one of them.

His musings were interrupted as the door to the enclosed observation deck opened and Fuyutski entered.

"We've received an encrypted message from headquarters," he began.

"And?" Gendo prompted him when Fuyutski hesitated.

The former professor looked around the observation deck, as though concerned about hidden listening devices. Gendo almost rolled his eyes at the pointless gesture.

"The Ninja is dead. Section Two recently made a positive identification on his…remains," Fuyutski finally spat it out. "They haven't been able to find anything to indicate that he took…_her_ with him."

All thoughts of his son abruptly leaving him, Gendo Ikari took a slow, deep breath, refusing to show his annoyance. "Once we return to Tokyo-3, we will have to locate a higher caliber of assassin," he said.

"But the Ninja was supposed to be the best in all of Japan, if not all of Asia," Fuyutski pointed out.

"Then I will get the best assassin in the world," was Gendo's simple response.

* * *

"For me?" Mayumi asked, blinking dumbly at small box Shinji was holding out to her.

It was a bento box. A perfectly plain bento box, wrapped in a simple white cloth to help hold in the heat and make it easier to carry. Yet Mayumi knew the potential implications this gesture on Shinji's part might have, and she suddenly found herself extremely wary. She eyed the simple box as though it might try to bite her.

Not that Shinji seemed to notice. "Yeah," he said. "I kind of figured that Motomu probably makes you lunch, but, well…" he trailed off, looking bashful.

"Actually, I was just planning to buy lunch today, anyway," Mayumi lied, reaching out and accepting the bento with a small smile that Shinji returned. "Thank you."

She realized, with some surprise, that she was genuinely touched by the gesture. It wasn't a big thing, but it was the first time that someone who wasn't on her payroll had cooked for her in a very long time.

_I'm getting far too attached to this boy,_ the part of her mind that was Batgirl warned.

The part of her that was Mayumi couldn't bring itself to view that as a bad thing.

"Oh, you're welcome," Shinji said. "Um, would you like to sit down?"

"Sure," Mayumi replied.

The two walked around the schoolyard until they found a shady, relatively secluded beneath an old red oak. They sat down and ate quietly for a few minutes.

"You're in a good mood," Mayumi remarked eventually. "I guess the last battle went well?"

"Yeah, it did," Shinji nodded. He paused for moment, appearing to gather his thoughts, before he continued. "Asuka, Ayanami and me actually seem to be coming together as a team. I'm almost starting to believe that we'll all live through this war, if we can keep this up."

"Don't say things like that," Mayumi admonished him softly, even as she silently marveled over what he chose to talk about.

She had seen his Evangelion holding up that enormous Angel all by itself for several seconds before the other EVAs had made it to him. Most people would've boasted about this Herculean feat, not commented on how he and his fellow pilots were finally starting to gel.

Shinji shrugged her comment off. "Anyway, after we won, we all went to get something to eat," he said. "It was nice, but, well, I wished you were there." He added with a faint blush.

Mayumi turned away, hiding behind the dark curtain of her hair. She actually felt like she had a lump in her throat. "I was probably stuck in traffic, trying to get back into Tokyo-3 while you having that ramen," she lied, suddenly realizing what had inspired him to cook for her.

"I figured," Shinji said. "Still, it would've been nice."

"This is nice," Mayumi blurted out. She immediately felt like an idiot for making the comment, and for more than one reason.

Shinji smiled, though. "Yeah, it is," he agreed.

* * *

There were times when Makoto wondered just why he kept working at NERV, and that day was definitely one of them.

_Oh, sure, it seemed so cool when they recruiting me,_ he thought ruefully. _Giant robots, saving the world, the whole nine yards._

Of course, the brochures hadn't included anything about all the long hours, the tech mused as he headed down to the Pribnow Box.

"Or all the manual labor," he grunted as he strained with the weight of some component for the Box's control room.

He arrived at said control room a moment later, finding Aoba there, supervising a small handful of more junior technicians.

"Where do you want this?" Makoto grunted.

"Over there's fine," Aoba said, pointing to the corner of the room with a pencil he was holding.

The bespectacled tech lugged the component to desired spot and gently set it down, rubbing his aching arms once he'd been relieved of the weight. "Man, I can't believe this place sometimes," he commented to Aoba.

"What do mean, exactly?" the long-haired man asked wryly. "There are a lot of things about NERV that are completely unbelievable."

Makoto smirked. "True," he admitted, palming sweat off his forehead. "What I was talking about was how quickly everything went back to normal around here. Just a couple of days ago we were evacuating the whole area because we thought it was about to become part of the damn ocean. Today, it's business as usual."

"Yeah, I know," Aoba said. "You think we could've at least had a party to celebrate the fact that we didn't all die before we had to get back to work."

Makoto smiled ruefully. "That would've been nice, but what really gets to me is the way things go from normal, to crazy, and back again in the blink of an eye," he said. "It's enough to give a guy whiplash."

Aoba chuckled. "Yeah, I hear you," he said. "Hopefully things stay at 'normal' for a while this time."

"Well, so long as an Angel doesn't show up, they should," Makoto said. "I mean, what could happen with this test for Dr. Akagi's auto-pilot system?"

* * *

Jun Godo had promised his wife that he'd stop smoking.

He had no idea _why_ he'd done such a thing. Considering that he lived in a city where the threat of Armageddon was all but routine, he would've considered it a privilege to die of lung cancer. In any case, he thought that a man in his position needed the stress relief that a good smoke could provide.

But…whatever the reason, he _had_ promised. As Godo liked to think of himself as a man of his word, he'd done his best to keep his promise.

However, recent events had just been _too much_, which was why Godo was sneaking up to the roof of his apartment building, his slightly crushed "emergency" pack of cigarettes in hand.

_Just one,_ he thought. _Just one, and that'll be the last cigarette I ever have._

Reaching his destination, Godo sighed contentedly as he took a deep breath of the night air. It was pleasant out, and the wind wasn't strong enough to make what he'd come to do difficult. Sticking a cigarette between his teeth, he withdrew an old Zippo from his pocket and lit up.

The tranquility of the moment was a sharp and welcome contrast to the life of an officer in the T3PD (and to the life of a citizen of Tokyo-03 in general). Jun Godo intended to enjoy it for as long as he could.

Which didn't turn out to be very long. He almost wasn't surprised when he spotted the dark shape in the distance, which, he thought, said a lot about the turns his life had been taking lately.

"Godo," Batgirl greeted him curtly, coming close enough that he could easily see her in the dim light.

"Been some time since I saw you last," he commented.

"I've been busy. A personal matter," the dark lady replied cryptically. "It's done with now."

Godo decided that it was probably best not to ask. "I see," he replied, flicking some of the ash from his cigarette off onto the roof. "So, I assume that this about the whole kidnapping case at Yamagishi Manor?"

"Yes. As I'm sure you've heard, the pampered brat is actually pressing charges against the Penguin," Batgirl practically growled.

Godo raised an eyebrow. "You disapprove of the young Miss Yamagishi's actions?" he asked.

"She has no idea what she's doing. I'll be working overtime making sure nothing unfortunate happens to her. But, her actions do give us the chance to see justice done," Batgirl added, sounding almost reluctant to give the heiress any credit.

"That it does," Godo agreed. "Of course, this isn't the first time we've gotten close to Cobblepot before. Oh, we've never gotten _this_ close, but I still wish I was more confident that he won't skate again. I'll bet he's already taking steps to subvert the legal system."

"That's a bet you'd win," Batgirl said, producing a manila envelope from somewhere and handing it to him.

"What's this?" Godo asked, accepting the envelope and opening it. The thing was filled with photographs and what looked like a video tape.

"Evidence that known associates of the Penguin have bribed every member of the jury for his case," Batgirl said.

Godo damn near swallowed his cigarette. "No!" he gasped in disbelief, riffling through the photographs and seeing that it seemed to be true. "We can add jury tampering to the list of charges with this. And there won't even be any need to declare a mistrial, since _this_ trial hasn't started yet."

"It's also your ticket onto the case," Batgirl commented shrewdly.

A rueful smile appeared on Godo's face. "You heard about how they locked me out, huh?"

"I keep my ear to the ground," Batgirl deadpanned. "You're too honest. That's why they don't want you anywhere near that case."

"Hmm," Godo grunted, thoughtful. "I'll have to say that I went vigilante to get this stuff. If I told them that you gave it to me…"

"I understand," Batgirl said. "I'm not in this for the glory."

He had a sneaking suspicion that she also understood (but didn't much care) how crazy it would make him look, claiming that he'd spent endless hours on an investigation he hadn't been assigned to. Jun Godo wasn't going to be winning any popularity contests at the station house any time soon, that was for damn sure.

"I'll do what I can," he said.

"Good," was Batgirl's simple reply.

The dark lady did him the honor of _not_ vanishing the instant he looked away this time. Instead, she calmly walked over to the edge of the roof, stepping up onto the ledge that surrounded the perimeter.

Godo had no idea how she intended to get from there to wherever she was going, but he didn't for a moment think she was about to commit suicide, either. Somehow, he just knew that the caped crusader did this on an almost daily basis.

"You know," he commented, just before she departed, "you've been popping up whenever you need something, or have something for me. I really should have a way to get in touch with _you_."

Batgirl turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. "I don't like to give out my phone number," she said gruffly.

"Didn't say it had to be a phone," Godo pointed out.

The dark lady just grunted. "Maybe we'll figure something out in the future."

With that, she leaped off the side of the building. Godo ran forward to peer over the ledge and watch her fall. He made it just in time to see Batgirl fire off her grappling gun and go swinging through the city, apparently as at ease soaring through the air as her namesake. She quickly became a dark speck as she put distance between them, and it took only seconds for the policeman's eyes to lose track of her.

Godo heaved a sigh, then belatedly realized his cigarette had nearly burned down all the way to the filter. He tossed it to the ground and then stamped it out with the heel of his shoe.

_Really should get back inside,_ he thought.

Yet…he suddenly felt like he deserved a second cigarette. Shaking his head at his lack of willpower, Godo shook another one out of the pack and stuck it into his mouth.

"This'll be my last one," he swore to himself, speaking around the cancer stick as he lit up. "Really."

Somehow, even he didn't believe himself.

* * *

Most people would have considered the amount of weight on the bar completely insane. Most people would've viewed it as a fantastically stupid show of machismo, as well as a guaranteed trip to the hospital. Even most power lifters would've seen the heavily loaded bar as an injury waiting to happen.

To the only man in the extensive gym, it was a warm up.

He was just about to begin his workout when a phone in the corner of the room rang. Heaving a sigh of annoyance, the enormous made man his way over to it, grabbing a Bluetooth headset and putting it on.

"What?" he asked curtly, his deep voice colored by a heavy Latin American accent.

The caller seemed slightly taken aback by the greeting. After a moment's hesitation, however, he spoke. "I have heard that you've the greatest assassin in the world."

With a smirk, the enormous man walked over to his weights again and gripped it in both. He smoothly lifted it up, his biceps bulging as the ends of barbell visibly sagged. However, when he spoke, his voice contained no hint that he was straining.

"I have been called such by many people," he said. "I have taken on hundreds of jobs in my time, and not once have I failed to eliminate a target, no matter how well protected or difficult to find."

"Excellent," the voice on the other end of the phone said. "There is someone in Tokyo-3 that I need you to eliminate."

"Gendo Ikari?" the assassin guessed. In his experience, the target tended to be the most powerful man in any given place.

However, past experiences had apparently led him astray this time. "No," the caller said, sounding annoyed. "Have you heard of Batgirl?"

The huge man had to resist the urge to laugh. Hiring _him_ to destroy a girl in a Halloween costume?

"I have," he answered, still curling bar with slow, seemingly effortless movements. "I was unaware she was in Tokyo-3, however."

"She recently relocated here," the caller said. "Will you take the job?"

The assassin paused for a moment, thinking it over. Batgirl seemed like unworthy prey. However, it had been too long since he had embarked on a job, and though he had no need for the money, he feared he would get soft if he stayed out of action for too long.

"Yes," he answered. "The job will cost you five million US dollars, plus all expenses."

"Five million?" the caller echoed, stunned.

"The best assassin the world does not come cheaply," the huge man said, finally racking the bar. He began to remove the weight plates, meticulously putting them back in place.

"Very well," the caller agreed. "Five million, plus all expenses."

"I will head for Tokyo-3 as soon as half my fee has been deposited into my Swiss bank account," the assassin said.

"What's the account number?" the caller asked. After the assassin rattled it off, he added. "You'd better be worth this."

There was a soft click, and then the call ended. The huge man chuckled to himself. Picking up the now empty weight bar, he gripped both ends in his giant hands, then applied pressure. His face twisted into a grimace as his muscles strained, but it wasn't long before the bar had been bent into a V-shape.

"I think I'm worth it," he said, then tossed the ruined bar carelessly to the floor. He then went to retrieve his mask, and for just a moment, he felt a stab of pity for the dark lady. She had no idea that her days were numbered. "Soon, Batgirl, I will break you."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** So ends the saga of Batgirl's battles against the Ninja. And so begins her battles against…well, you'll find out. Though I expect every Bat-fan reading this knows _exactly_ who the new guy is.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, other than that I hope you all enjoyed reading Mayumi's final clash with Kyodai as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well.

Now for a little fun.

* * *

Omake!

Yucky

"_Kyodai!_" Batgirl shouted.

"Looks like you were wrong, little girl!" he called back at her, still smug despite everything. "There _is_ something I'm willing to die for after all!"

The dark lady opened her mouth to yell at the Ninja, to tell him not to be stupid and accept her efforts to save him, but she had no more time. Unit Zero reached him then, its massive foot coming down squarely on the building he lay upon and instantly crushing the man.

Batgirl's eyes widened behind her cowl. _She'll never even know what she just…_

Then, surprisingly, Unit Zero slowed to a halt.

"Rei! We could use a little help!" Shinji's strained sounding voice boomed from Unit One's external speakers.

"Get your ass over here, Wonder Girl!" Asuka barked.

"In a second, guys!" Rei shouted back. "I think I have something stuck to the bottom of my shoe!"

With that, the blue colossus grabbed hold of a nearby skyscraper (doing a great deal of damage to the structure in the process) for balance, and then lifted one of its feet, observing the bottom of it.

"Ewww!" Rei exclaimed as she saw what was left of the Ninja. "I have a D-list villain stuck to it!"

"_D-list?_" Batgirl shrieked, so loudly that the EVA pilots were easily able to hear her. "I just spent, like, half a dozen chapters fighting that guy! It does not take _Batgirl_ six chapters to stop a D-lister! _He was B-list at the minimum!_"

For a long moment following this outburst, everything was silent in Tokyo-3. Shinji and Asuka completely forgot about the Angel barreling toward them. The Angel completely forgot about trying to annihilate the city. Rei completely forgot about having what was left of a (D to B-list range) villain stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

Everyone just stared dumbly at Batgirl.

"Um…disappear!" the caped crusader shouted, throwing a small pellet to the ground and vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"Well," Rei observed dryly, "her rep's pretty much shot."


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Ten:** Infiltration, Part I

Shinji decided that the decontamination process reminded him of a car wash. The giant circular brushes were absent, as was the massive cloth at the end; these had been replaced by blasts of soapy water and hot air. The hot wax had also mercifully been left out, but the whole automated cleaning process still made him feel very much like NERV regarded the pilots as just one more thing needed to make Evangelion work, instead of actual people.

It was a depressing thought.

Then the doors to the little elevator car like room that he was inside slid open with a hiss, leaving only a pane of frosted glass that didn't reach above his neck or below his knees separating him from a very long, very white hallway that led to the Evangelion Dummy Bodies. Shinji immediately found his thoughts shifting away from philosophical issues under the weight of his embarrassment at what was happening.

"I don't see why we have to do this naked!" Asuka snapped testily from a similar room next to his.

Shinji normally found Asuka's complaints annoying, but at the moment he was thinking about making her his official spokeswoman.

"We need the data for this auto-pilot system to be as clear as possible, which means eliminating any interference caused by both clothes and microbes," Ritsuko explained over an intercom. "Just showering and wearing your plug suits isn't enough."

"I won't do it!" Asuka exclaimed. "I won't parade around naked in front of all of you!"

"We do respect your privacy as much as possible," Misato spoke up, also over the intercom. "We're switching off all the cameras."

"Oh, so all I have to worry about is the baka hentai, then," Asuka growled.

"Look, Asuka, this has to get done, and all your complaining isn't go to do anything to change that," Misato said, sounding much less apologetic than she had a moment ago. "Now, _get moving._"

With another wordless growl, Asuka slammed her fist down on the button to open the frosted glass doors separating her from the long hallway.

* * *

"You know, it's not going to get any easier the longer you procrastinate," Motomu said.

"Yes, I'm aware of that, thank you," Mayumi growled in reply.

The butler and the heiress were both currently down in the Batcave, and while Motomu was keeping himself busy tidying the place up, Mayumi had been simply staring at the phone for the past several minutes.

There weren't many things that frightened her, but she would have gladly gone another ten rounds with the Ninja rather than make the call she was thinking about.

Unfortunately, there was no putting it off any longer. She had delayed too much as it was already. With a scowl, Mayumi picked up the receiver and quickly dialed. The phone rang twice before someone picked up.

"Hello?" a familiar voice spoke.

"Hello, Yoru Sensei," she said.

"Ah, Mayumi, how nice to hear from you again," the old martial arts master said. "To what do I owe the pleasure this time?"

"I, um…I had the claims that Kyodai Ken was in the city investigated a bit further," Mayumi said, her hesitant tone not entirely false.

"Ah," it was one syllable, but Mayumi could easily imagine the old man's expression darkening because of it. "I don't see why you pursue such…unpleasant matters. He is not your responsibility, Mayumi."

"As your student, I felt I should at least keep tabs on him," she replied.

"Very well," Yoru Sensei replied, resignedly. "Tell me what you have learned, then."

"Kyodai is dead," Mayumi answered. "My…sources confirmed it. There is no doubt."

Yoru Sensei was silent for a long moment before speaking again. "I see," he finally sighed. "It is probably for the best, though I suppose I always hoped that one day he would see the error of his ways and seek to atone for the things he has done. Do you know how he died?"

Mayumi hesitated, not sure how much she could reveal to him before he started asking her how she knew so much.

He deserved to know, she decided. "He and Batgirl did battle during the last Angel attack," she said, "and Kyodai was crushed by one of the Evangelions. The pilot probably never even suspected he was there."

"I see," Yoru Sensei said, his tone thoughtful. "I suppose Batgirl has done my dojo a service by defeating my rogue student, and yet, I still do not quite know what to think of the dark lady."

"My sources tell me she attempted to save him, but he would have none of it," Mayumi blurted out. "He refused to be rescued by her, or to give her his respect."

"Your sources are very well informed," Yoru Sensei commented.

"Oh, well, you see…" Mayumi stammered.

"Still, if they are correct, it sounds as though Batgirl is an honorable warrior after all," Yoru Sensei continued, ignoring her verbal flailing. "And that Kyodai was stubborn and prideful to end, dying just for the sake of spiting an opponent."

"Do not…judge him too harshly," Mayumi said. "From what I understand, Batgirl only overcame him by using a series of tricks and exotic weaponry. I understand why he did not give her his respect, even after she had defeated him."

Yoru Sensei tsked. "Batgirl and my old student were involved in a battle, Mayumi, not a match," he said. "It is no dishonor to use all the weapons available to you, especially when you fight in the defense of others. I have told Kyodai this. More likely, I think his stubborn pride simply wouldn't allow him to accept defeat at the hands of a small girl."

"…as you say, Yoru Sensei," Mayumi replied, surprised. She was certain that he would view her alter ego's use of gadgetry in battle as dishonorable.

"Speaking for myself, if the things you have told me about Batgirl are true, then she certainly has my respect," the martial arts master added.

Mayumi was speechless. Though she had decided it was worth the cost, she had taken it as a given that she had achieved victory over Kyodai through dishonorable means. To hear her old teacher tell her otherwise was something she had not expected.

Mayumi knew that she'd expose her secret for sure if she thanked her old master for it, yet it was still very hard to hold her tongue.

* * *

Back in the Pribnow box control room, the experiment that NERV was running had taken a very unexpected—and undesirable—turn.

"The First Child's simulation body is moving by itself!" Maya exclaimed.

"Impossible!" Ritsuko said.

But, impossible or not, it was happening. Rei's dummy body, which was bolted to the wall like all the others, looked like it was trying to pull itself free. Fortunately, the thick bolts holding it had been drilled into several of the very vertebrae of the thing's spine, and it failed to liberate itself from its restraints. Giving up, it lifted one arm and reached out toward the control room.

Maya smashed the thin layer of glass in front of a large switch marked "forced shutdown" and pulled it. Small but powerful explosive charges located in the dummy body's elbow exploded, blow the headless beast's forearm off and stopping its assault before it could begin.

"What about Rei?" Misato demanded.

"She's alive," Maya answered.

"Eject all the plugs!" Ritsuko commanded. "Fire the lasers! Now!"

"Right!"

A series of small rockets in each plug flared, sending the metal containers rocketing out of the dummy bodies and upwards toward the ceiling. A large door opened up to allow them to escape and the plugs had soon journeyed out of the base, heading to the safety of the Geofront floor.

Beams of deadly red light shot out from the weapon barrels of the polysomes, striking the rogue simulation body. For a few seconds, no one had any idea what was happening as the water bubbled furiously and hid any effect the lasers might be having.

Then the bubbles cleared up just enough for Misato to spot a cluster of hexagonal shields of light protecting the dummy body from the lasers.

"Impossible! It's an AT field!" the Ops Director exclaimed, just as some red, luminescent substance began to grow all over the dummy bodies like an out of control fungus.

"The pattern's blue! It's an Angel!" Maya said grimly.

"We have to isolate the box!" Misato announced. "All personnel, evacuate!"

The various technicians in the room didn't need to be told twice and quickly got up from their chairs and fled toward the exit. Ritsuko was another matter, however. The blonde just stared darkly at the Angel, even as the glass that separated the control room from the Pribnow box began to crack, tiny jets of water starting to spurt in.

"Rits!" Misato yelled. "We have to go!"

Ritsuko didn't say anything, but she did begin running, and the two just managed to escape and shut the door behind them just before the window shattered and allowed an avalanche of water to pour in.

* * *

Mayumi was still struggling to come up with something to say to her former teacher when the cave's main computer began to emit an insistent beep, and the dark haired girl's eyes widened.

"Yoru Sensei, my deepest apologies, but a matter requiring my immediate attention has come up," Mayumi said.

"I understand," Yoru Sensei said. "Please, feel free to call again whenever you wish, Mayumi."

"Thank you, Yoru Sensei," she said. "Good bye."

Mayumi hung up and instantly moved over to the Bat computer's controls, typing furiously. Noticing her sudden burst of activity, Motomu walked up behind her, a small frown on his face.

"What's going on, Mayumi-san?" he asked.

"Something's wrong with the MAGI," she answered, not looking up from the screen as various reports and messages scrolled across it, at a pace that was slightly too fast for the butler to take in.

"What? How could you know that?" Motomu asked.

"I'll spare you the technical details, but I've set the Bat computer to regularly ping the MAGI," she said. "Normally, it just runs directly into the firewall, but this time it looks like something's wrong."

"Isn't it dangerous to do that?" Motomu asked. "What if NERV traces back the source of these digital assaults and finds you?"

"I've taken precautions to prevent that from ever happening," Mayumi assured him. "In any case, people try to hack the MAGI all the time, and no one's ever succeeded so far as I'm aware of. I doubt that NERV even bothers to investigate most of the hacking attempts."

The butler didn't look entirely reassured, but he allowed the point to drop. "So what's going on then?"

"I'm not sure exactly," Mayumi replied. "The Bat computer sounded off the alert because it took the MAGI significantly longer than usual to react to the 'attack.' And look." She added, pressing a button.

Multiple images of car accidents clogging up intersections appeared on the screen. "Chaos on the roads?" Motomu asked.

The raven haired girl nodded. "All within the last hour. The traffic lights aren't working properly, and that's not all," she explained. "Streetlights are going on even though sunset is still over two hours away. A number of the city's utility grids going haywire in some areas, too."

"The MAGI controls all of those functions, doesn't it?" Motomu asked.

"Exactly, and—" the computer beeped again, prompting the lady of the house to check it. "Control of all the MAGI's civilian functions has just been transferred to a backup system above ground. That settles it. Something's seriously wrong with the MAGI, and NERV doesn't expect to have it fixed any time soon."

Without another word, she rose from her chair, catching the butler by surprise, and heading for the small changing room where she kept her batsuit.

"What are you doing?" the butler asked.

"I'm going to NERV," Mayumi replied, her tone firm.

"_What?_" Motomu squawked, his voice uncharacteristically shrill, just as the raven haired girl entered the changing room and shut the door after her.

Mayumi emerged only moments later, clad up to her neck in the black outfit, with her cowl clutched tightly in her fist. All but ignoring the butler, she strode purposefully toward her waiting motorcycle.

"Mayumi-san, are you sure this is a good idea?" Motomu said, following her. "As you said yourself, sunset is still over two hours from now."

"I'm not going out into the city, and I won't have to spend much time topside," the girl replied. "Inside the NERV base, it doesn't make much difference whether it's day or night."

"This is a very risky move," Motomu continued to argue. "You have no way of knowing just how badly the MAGI is malfunctioning, nor do you know when NERV will have them back in working order."

"I'm aware of that," Mayumi replied as she pulled her cowl onto her head. The moment it was on, her voice seemed to become a little lower and much colder. "But I've been wanting to get into NERV headquarters for months. I had to pass up the chance during the blackout. I may never get another opportunity, and I won't lose this one."

The butler looked like he wanted to protest further, but he seemed to realize that his employer was not going to be swayed. With a small sigh, he took a few steps back from the motorcycle. "Good luck, Mayumi-san, and please be careful," he said.

Batgirl nodded in response, then started her bike's engine. A moment later, she was speeding off, through the tunnel that led out of the Batcave. She soon emerged outside, her black costume as obvious in the daylight as it was surreptitious in darkness. However, she wasn't on the streets for long. Before anyone could see her, she had reached one of the many access points that the city's maintenance workers used to reach the underground portions of Tokyo-3.

_If only Tokyo-2 had had these things,_ she thought as she climbed inside. The incredibly thick metal plate upon which the city was built was honeycombed with a network of tunnels that was nothing short of labyrinthine. Even the people who made their living by frequently venturing down to this part of the city to repair broken hardware often became lost.

The caped crusader, however, had immediately realized the potential of the tunnels, and she had made it one of her top priorities to acquaint herself with the place. Now she ran through the dim passages, never needing to pause to consider the proper route.

Even so, it took her several long minutes to reach her destination. The plate was very thick after all.

At last, she came to a large, removable panel in the floor. Quickly undoing the bolts which kept it securely in place, she grabbed hold of it and lifted it with a grunt, moving it off to the side. Looking down through the hole where the panel had been, Batgirl stared down at the vast forest of the Geofront, lush and green and devoid of human structures.

Save for the NERV pyramid and a few auxiliary buildings, of course.

The dark lady allowed herself a moment to just stand there and look at it, quietly amazed that she was finally about to enter the belly of the beast. It would be by far one of her most dangerous undertakings yet, but after so many years, the answers she had searched for might finally be within reach.

Today, she might at last learn the truth behind the murder of her parents.

Grabbing hold of her cape with both hands, Batgirl leaped through the hole.

* * *

Shinji was definitely not having a good day. As if the whole mortifying experience of being forced to do a glorified sync test in the nude hadn't been bad enough, something had gone terribly wrong.

He wasn't exactly sure what exactly that was, but it had apparently been pretty severe, judging from all the screaming he'd heard from the Pribnow Box control room. Whatever the malfunction, it had been so dangerous that they'd jettisoned the test plugs out into the Geofront in order to get the pilots away at maximum speed.

That ride had not been very pleasant, but what was really getting to him was the wait. Shinji and the others would have just walked back to the base, of course, except they were all still completely naked. After having been so important that their evacuation from the base had been rocket propelled, everybody in NERV appeared to have forgotten about the pilots.

_It figures,_ he thought bitterly. _We're not very important people. We're just Evangelion parts that are really hard to replace. They go crazy to make sure we don't die, then they don't care if we're bored and miserable._

Still, he mused, it had been (or at least, it felt like) a _very_ long time since the autopilot test had come to its dramatic and premature end. NERV had to send someone for them _eventually_, so maybe somebody was already on the way.

_Maybe I should peek outside and look,_ he mused.

Shinji hesitated. He didn't have to expose himself to have all look; all he had to do was simply open the hatch on his test plug and poking his head outside, but still there were risks involved. Namely, that one of the girls might have the same idea at the same time, and that he'd find himself inadvertently peeping at them.

Accidentally getting an eyeful of Rei would just be very awkward after the time when he'd walked into her apartment and found her fresh out of the shower. And if he happened to see Asuka…

Shinji shuddered just imagining the consequences.

"Still, what are the odds that one of them will decide to look at the exact same time I do?" he wondered aloud.

Very slim, he thought. In any case, he was starting to go crazy from boredom and being trapped in the confined space of the plug with no idea of when he'd get out. Making up his mind, Shinji grabbed the handle on the exit hatch and pulled, opening it up.

"Ahh," he breathed a sigh of relief as he poked his head out and finally got to take in a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately, fresh air was the only good thing he got for his troubles. While the other two pilots' entry plugs were still firmly shut, a quick look around showed that there was nobody coming to rescue them from their predicament.

"Great," grumbled the Third Child.

He was just about to withdraw back into the plug when a shadow briefly passed over him. Above ground, he would have just assumed it was a cloud passing over the sun or something, but that sort of thing didn't happen inside the Geofront.

Looking up, the EVA pilot saw some kind of black…thing streaking through the air above them.

"What in the world…?" he wondered aloud.

Whatever it was, it was heading straight toward the NERV pyramid as it descended. Shinji couldn't tell very well from his vantage point, but it seemed to come down for a landing a mile or less from headquarters.

"Oh, man," he groaned. The thing was very small for an Angel, but he supposed it was possible. Even if it wasn't one of the destructive beasts that NERV had been fighting, Shinji doubted that the mysterious black object meant the organization well.

_Somebody should really warn them,_ he thought. _And if it __**is**__ an Angel, then they're going to need an EVA pilot to fight it._

What he needed to do was obvious, but that he didn't mean he had to like it. After all, walking all the way back to back with bare feet…stark naked…

"Why did I have to take a look outside the entry plug?" he wondered aloud as he climbed out and gingerly began making his way back to the base.

* * *

Batgirl came to a landing about a quarter of a mile from the NERV pyramid, her boots hitting the ground and kicking up a small cloud of dust. Immediately, she sought cover within the surprisingly dense foliage.

Moving as quietly as she could, the dark lady reached into her belt and withdrew a small gadget. Turning it on, she stared at the small screen as it performed a sweep of the surrounding area, then displayed the results. There were no electromagnetic fields in the immediate area, save for those that her own equipment was generating.

_No cameras or other listening devices out here,_ she thought with some relief.

If NERV had gone to the trouble of installing surveillance devices out in the Geofront forest, then her mission might have well been doomed to failure before it had truly begun. So far, though, her entrance had been clean.

Her exit would be a far more complicated matter, seeing as how gravity would be working against her rather than for her when it came to that, but she told herself to remain focused on the present.

Darting from cover to cover, Batgirl gradually made way her way across the forest floor toward the NERV base, occasionally stopping to sweep for EM fields again, just to make sure she wasn't blithely passing by security cameras. It would have been far quicker to activate her suit's stealth mode and simply make a run for it, but that feature drained the suit's battery supply very quickly; she had to conserve power for when she really needed it.

As it was, she still made fairly good time. It wasn't long before she reached the edge of the massive clearing where the pyramid was situated.

_Now for the first real challenge,_ she thought as she observed the front entrance from the shadows of the brush.

The main gate was guarded by a pair of men wearing red berets, both holding submachine guns. The dark lady could tell just by looking at them, at the way they stood and held their weapons, that they weren't anything like the often incompetent thugs who made up Section Two. No, these men were trained soldiers.

Even so, Batgirl wasn't concerned about getting past them; she knew she could take them easily, especially with surprise on her side. No, what concerned her was getting past them _undetected_. If she set off any kind of alarm this early in the game, she might as well just give up and head for home.

She briefly considered finding another, less well guarded entrance, then rejected the idea. The dark lady didn't know how much time she had to get in, find the information she wanted, and get out. Motomu had been quite correct about that part.

_Knockout gas? No, someone will find them before long, and even if they don't, they'll wake up eventually and sound an alert,_ she thought, running her hands over the various pouches in her utility belt. _Taser? No, same problems. Batarangs? Definitely not. Ahh, here we go…_

Moving quickly but silently, the dark lady made her way around to another side of the pyramid, where the front entrance couldn't be seen. Pulling a metal can with a special dispenser attached to the top from her belt, she pointed it downwards and sprayed a generous amount of its contents—a pale blue foam—onto the ground.

"Stealth mode," she whispered.

Immediately, her suit's black exterior shifted in colors so she blended in with her surroundings perfectly, making her all but invisible. Still, she knew that she wasn't completely undetectable. Moving with complete silence, and making sure to avoid the gazes of the two men standing guard as much as possible, she crept from her hiding place in the brush, getting as close as possible to main entrance.

Once she felt that she'd pressed her luck as much as she realistically could, Batgirl pressed a button on the can's dispenser.

_BOOM!_

The blast created by the explosive gel she'd left in the brush was practically thunderous inside the Geofront, which was largely devoid of the noisy animal life which characterized regular forests.

The two guards standing in front of the door instantly traded a look. Then, one of them headed into the brush and toward the area where the small explosion had come from, weapon held at the ready.

Batgirl scowled. She might have known they'd be too smart to both go and investigate the noise. Clearly, further steps had to be taken.

The dark lady followed the guard who'd left the front entrance, staying a good distance behind him. Reaching into her belt, she grabbed one of her special batarangs and unfolded it with a practiced flick of her wrist. Taking aim, she threw the weapon, which knifed through the air without the slightest sound, moving too quickly to be seen by anyone who wasn't looking for it.

"Argh!" the guard who'd ventured into the bushes cried out in pain as it struck his knee.

"What? What happened?" the other guard asked, finally leaving the door to run over to his companion.

"I don't know," the first guard answered. "Something hit me in the leg."

While they searched fruitlessly for their invisible attacker in the undergrowth, the specialized batarang returned to the dark lady's hand as though magnetized. Catching it with ease, she quickly returned it to her belt and then made her way over to the gate.

All too aware of how little time she probably had before the guards returned to their post, Batgirl withdrew yet another item from her belt. A new addition to her arsenal, the cryptographic sequencer, was supposed to be capable of opening any electronic lock in a minimal amount of time. She had tested the thing extensively in controlled situations, but this was the first time she was using it out in the field.

_Here's hoping it lives up to the hype,_ she thought as she activated it. It was still broad daylight outside; even with her suit's stealth function active, the guards would quickly see her outline as soon as they took their attention away from searching the shrubbery an got within sight of the doors.

The device immediately fixed onto the electronic locking mechanism, but that was only half the process. The dark lady began to adjust the dials on the gadget, knowing she needed to find _just_ the right frequency…

"I'm telling you, something hit me," one of the guards said, his tone defensive.

"And I'm telling you, I believe you," his comrade reassured him. "I know you wouldn't just make that up, and anyway, we both heard that bang."

"Yeah," the first man agreed. "Something weird is going on here. Think we should call it in? Get more manpower up here to search the area?"

Batgirl grit her teeth. They were about to abandon their search in favor of returning with more people; she only had seconds left.

_Come on,_ she thought. _Come on…_

"Whatever—or whoever—hit me, it seems like they retreated," the first guard commented. "We should get back. If Ikari finds out we stepped away from the gate for even a minute…"

"Good point," the other one replied.

Though Batgirl didn't dare turn, her sharp ears picked up the sound of their footsteps as they tromped through the brush, heading back toward the gate.

_Come on…_

"Hey!"

The dark lady's blood turned to ice water. To have failed, and to have failed so quickly…

"Look at this!" the guard continued. "The plants over here are all burnt. Whatever that bang was, I bet it came from this spot."

Resisting the urge to release a gusty sigh of relief, the caped crusader settled for exhaling a long breath through her nose.

"Yeah, guess that'll give us a place to start," the second guard said. "Now let's get back."

Batgirl abruptly found the correct frequency, and the gate began to rise up silently. She made a mental note to thank whoever was in charge of maintaining the base, if she should ever meet him, for keeping the tracks so well oiled.

She slid inside on her belly the moment the gate was high enough for it, then quickly got up and pressed a button she found on the other side of the wall, causing the gate to descend once more. A moment later, it was closed.

She was in.

Now the real challenge began.

* * *

Tokio's hackles rose the moment she saw the big guy.

Easily seven feet in height, and with shoulders that looked almost as wide as he was tall, the man was a giant. However, it wasn't just his incredible size that caused alarm bells to start ringing inside her head; the guy was wearing a trench coat in the sweltering heat of the late afternoon, along with a wide brimmed fedora that obscured much of his face in shadows. Yet despite not being able to see his eyes, she could _feel_ his gaze upon her.

All in all, she definitely wasn't getting good vibes from him.

Unfortunately, she was running very low on cash. Ever since that man had tried to attack her one night, Tokio had been spooked.

_If Batgirl hadn't shown up when she did…_

So she had started working during daylight hours, even though there were by far more johns around at night. She had also taken a pass on any prospective client who struck her as possibly having malicious intentions, and the result was that her personal savings were at an all time low.

Danger or not, a girl had to eat somehow.

With a soft sigh, Tokio began to strut toward the huge man, her chest thrust out suggestively.

_Guy that big probably thinks he's invincible, but a good shot to the junk will hurt him just as much as it would some 98 pound weakling,_ she thought, reassuring herself.

"Hey there, big man," she greeted the giant in the most sultry voice she could muster. "Looking for a little company?"

The giant regarded her silently for a moment, just gazing down at her. Now at point blank range, Tokio could see him a little bit better. He was a Westerner, with unremarkable brown hair and a chiseled face that might have been handsome if it wasn't so…hard.

"How much?" the man asked. His incredibly deep, heavily accented voice reminded her of a bear's rumbling growls.

"Five thousand yen," she replied.

The man seemed to consider for a moment. "Done."

Forcing another smile, she ran a hand down his massive chest, easily feeling his musculature through the coat and whatever shirt he was wearing beneath.

_God, he's like iron,_ she thought with trepidation.

"Money up front, darling," she said with a flirty wink.

Reaching one giant mitt into his coat pocket, he withdrew a wallet and counted out 5,000 yen, handing it to her without a word. Tokio stuffed the wad of bills into the small handbag she carried with her.

"Step into my office, honey," she said.

Tokio led the man to a nearby alleyway, where they would have at least some privacy. Feeling her heartbeat accelerating as her anxiety grew, she was just able to keep up the act and give him a smoky smirk.

"So," she said, "what'll it…?"

With amazing speed for someone so big, the man grabbed her, his pie-plate sized hand easily wrapping around her slender waist, and lifted her effortlessly into the air and slammed her against the brick wall of the alley. Tears of pain sprang into Tokio's eyes as the wind was knocked from her lungs.

Not exactly surprised by this turn of events, she reacted almost instantly, reaching into her bag. She'd upgraded from a box cutter to a taser following the attack that Batgirl had saved her from. It was small, containing only a few charges, but it should do the job. The weapon's distinctive clicking sound filled the air as she pressed the trigger, wasting no time in slamming it into the giant's arm.

The huge man's teeth clenched, and his eyes widened. He was obviously in pain, but he didn't collapse to the ground, convulsing, as Tokio had hoped he would. His hold on her never wavered.

It seemed like all she'd managed to do was piss him off.

With his free hand, the giant slapped at the weapon, almost contemptuously swatting it out of her grasp. Tokio drew in a deep breath, preparing to scream for all she was worth.

The man's hand clamped down over her mouth before she could even make a sound. She tried to bite him, but she couldn't manage to do it. She beat him wildly with her fists, but he gave no sign that she was hurting him at all. She was probably doing more damage to her hands than she was to him.

"If you scream, I will kill you," the giant said, and Tokio had no doubt that he would carry out his threat.

Slowly, the man removed his hand from her mouth. "What do you want?" she asked softly.

"You met Batgirl," the giant said matter-of-factly. "Tell me about it."

Tokio blinked stupidly at the man. Out of all the demands he might have made, this was the one she'd least expected. She was so surprised that she almost asked how he knew about her encounter with the city's caped crusader.

Then the man's hold tightened a bit, causing her to wince.

"Now," he demanded.

"Okay, okay!" she gasped out. "I was out one night, working , and this guy tried to attack me…"

She told him everything. She told him how Batgirl had burst out of the shadows, having been all but invisible before making her move. She told him how she'd used some kind of martial arts throw to send a man much larger than she was to the ground. She told him how she had halted the man's retreat with ease. Most of all, she told him about Batgirl's _presence_, how the dark lady had seemed to radiate menace.

"Then she left," Tokio finished. "It was like she just disappeared. And that's all I know about Batgirl, I swear!"

"Thank you," the giant replied.

With his free hand, he reached out and grabbed the top of her head in a firm grip. His paw was so massive he covered her eyes.

Realizing what he was about to do, Tokio only had time to think that she should have taken Batgirl's advice and found a new line of work.

Then he twisted, and she knew no more.

* * *

Overall, Batgirl still considered the day that the lights had gone out in Tokyo-3 to have been a lost opportunity. Lost in the name of a worthy cause, of course; she never would have forgiven herself if she'd allowed Shinji to die that day. Yet that did nothing to change the fact that she'd had a golden chance to get into NERV headquarters that day, and she had passed on it.

Nevertheless, that day hadn't been entirely fruitless so far as infiltrating NERV went. As luck had had it, she'd had the Yamagishi Micronic's spy chips planted on all three pilots that day. As all three had been forced to take paths through the base they wouldn't normally use, due to the power outage making many of the usual routes too much of a hassle, they had unknowingly mapped out quite a bit more of NERV headquarters for her. She learned quite a lot of useful information.

Most importantly, she'd discovered that the base actually had ventilation shafts large enough for her to crawl through. Impossible though it might have been to believe, the things actually retained this size almost everywhere throughout Central Dogma.

_The architect who designed this place __**must**__ have been connected somehow,_ she decided. _There's just no other explanation for someone so obviously incompetent getting the job._

In all fairness, most full grown adults would have had a great deal of trouble traversing the vents, if they'd managed to get inside at all. The teenager had no problem with it, though, and it gave her a chance to turn off her suit's stealth mode.

Now if only she could find her current destination. None of the pilots had ever ventured to the place, but she had a fairly good idea of where it was.

"I'm telling you, Shiro, the whole damn thing's going haywire, and there's nothing I can do to fix it until the MAGI goes back to normal," she heard a man's voice coming from beneath her. He sounded extremely frustrated.

Being as quiet as possible, Batgirl moved over to a nearby vent and peered down through the slots. One glance was enough to tell her that she'd finally found the place she was looking for, namely the base's security center. Banks of monitors lined the walls, and other high tech equipment was positioned throughout the room.

Despite the size of the place, though, only two men were present within it. One of them was clad in the plain tan uniform of the NERV technicians, while the other was another of the base's red bereted security officers.

"You have to get it working again," the red beret, apparently Shiro, insisted. "We don't have the manpower to keep this place secure the old fashioned way; we depend upon all the automation to make sure we use the resources we do have to maximum effect. Without it, we're vulnerable."

The tech sighed in a long suffering sort of way. "I understand your concerns," he said. "Really, I do. But the security programs require so much computing power that only the MAGI can run them, and the MAGI are going crazy right now. There's nothing I can do to change that. It's all I _can_ do to keep the whole damn system from crashing."

"…I'll increase patrols in the corridors. Call in every man that I can," Shiro said resignedly, finally accepting what the tech was telling him. "But you have to get the system working properly again as soon as possible."

"I understand," the tech replied. "Now get out of here so I can work."

"Well, since you asked so damned nicely…" Shiro said sarcastically, though he did finally leave the room.

The moment he was gone, the tech sat down at one of the stations and immediately started typing at a nearby keyboard, cursing softly every few seconds and pausing only occasionally to take a drink from a very large mug of coffee sitting next to him. Apparently, his attempt to get the security systems working properly again were going poorly.

Batgirl needed to know exactly how poorly. Working as quietly as she could, she removed the vent, allowing her access to the room. Completely occupied by his work, the harried tech never even had any clue that something was amiss. Not yet emerging from the shaft, she reached into her belt and withdrew a small capsule and a blow gun. Taking careful aim, she sent the capsule flying across the room.

It landed right in the tech's coffee mug with a soft _plunk_ sound, finally pulling his attention away from his monitor. He looked around, searching for the source of the noise, but the capsule had already sunk to the bottom of his mug by the time he checked it. He cast his gaze around the room next, but the dark lady had expected this and had moved the grate back into place. Eventually, the man shrugged and went back to work, but not before taking another drink of his coffee.

Smiling slyly beneath her cowl, Batgirl settled in to wait.

It didn't take long. A mere two minutes after he'd ingested some of the spiked coffee, the tech released a groan and clutched at his stomach. Rising from his squeaky chair, he ran out of the room, no doubt sprinting for the nearest restroom.

Once he was gone, Batgirl dropped from her place in the ventilation shaft, landing gracefully on the floor.

One good look at the banks of monitors on the walls made it only too obvious just how badly the security system was malfunctioning. More of the screens were filled with static than not, and a quick look at a readout in the tech's station showed that the more advanced methods of detection—heat sensors, motion detectors, and the like—were completely off-line.

_Perfect,_ she thought. She wouldn't even have to tamper with security at all to ensure that she went undetected. So long as whatever problem was plaguing the MAGI continued, she would practically have the run of the entire base.

There was only one thing she needed to do here, then. Reaching to her belt, she grabbed a small device that was really just a heavily modified palmtop computer, then connected it to the security system with a simple USB cable.

Several minutes later, the technician working the place returned, looking a little pale and shaky. He saw no sign that anyone had ever been in the room while he was gone, and he certainly had no idea that someone had downloaded a complete map of the base from his terminal.

"God, whatever I ate to cause this, I swear, I will never eat it again," he groaned, plopping back down into his chair. "As if this day wasn't going badly enough already."

With a sigh, he reached out for his mug, taking another sip of his coffee.

* * *

Over an hour after the Eleventh Angel had made its presence known, things weren't looking too good up on the command center. Aside from the myriad of problems that the MAGI were causing in their infected state, the question of how to kill the Angel remained very much a mystery. Their initial attempt to suffocate the thing with ozone had failed spectacularly, with the beast adapting, making itself capable of thriving on the stuff.

_How do you kill an enemy that can evolve to __**like**__ whatever you throw at it?_ Misato wondered.

Any way one looked at it, their situation was grim. Shortly after thwarting their opening salvo, the Angel had transformed itself into what was essentially a living computer that could hack and code faster than any human could ever hope to. The Angel had immediately used its incredible new abilities to invade the MAGI. Melchior had already been completely taken over. The Angel had then moved onto Balthasar, but some quick thinking on Akagi's part had managed to buy NERV some time.

And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, the Angel had already tried to initiate the base's self-destruct sequence. Casper and Balthasar had overridden Melchior, but if the Angel gained complete control of the triumvirate of computers, it was certain that they were doomed.

In addition to all these worries, it looked like the Commander was playing a bizarre and dangerous game of politics with the Committee. Gendo had ordered the alarm to be called off in an attempt to make the Human Instrumentality Committee and the Japanese government believe that there was no attack. In a much more sensible move, he had also ordered that the EVA Units be launched without pilots in order to keep them from being contaminated.

"We have to destroy the MAGI," Misato finally proclaimed, unable to see any way around it.

Ritsuko's eyes hardened at her suggestion. "Destroying the MAGI means abandoning headquarters," she said sharply.

"I'm aware of that," Misato snapped. Honestly, Ritsuko acted like she was a damned idiot sometimes. "But we are under attack by a parasitic Angel, and I can't see any other way of destroying it aside from killing its host. If you have a better plan, I'd love to hear it."

"I do have an idea," Ritsuko said. "I believe that if the Angel continues to evolve, we can promote said evolution in a way that will lead to its own destruction."

"But how?" Maya asked. "Organisms evolve for the sole purpose of _survival_. There are no stimuli we can expose it to that will promote it toward a self-destructive evolutionary path."

Despite the direness of the situation, the corners of Ritsuko's mouth turned upwards. "Maya, I'm surprised at you; I would think that you'd be the first to realize what my plan is," she commented. "The Angel evolved into a living computer so it could hack the MAGI, but such a transformation creates a weakness as well. Since it's essentially a computer, we can reprogram _it_ and force it to evolve in a way that will result in death."

Maya was momentarily stunned by her mentor's brilliance, but a potential flaw in the plan suddenly occurred to the brunette. "But in order for you to do that, you'll need to disable the firewalls between Casper and the other MAGI."

"It's a gamble on what's faster: Casper or the Angel," Gendo observed.

"Yes, it is," Ritsuko acknowledged.

"Do you really believe that you can do this, Dr. Akagi?" Misato asked, her tone unusually stiff and formal.

"Yes," Ritsuko said firmly. "You have my word."

Misato nodded, giving her old friend a small smile that relieved the tension in the room a bit. "Your word's always been good in the past." She said. "All right. The Tactical Department will allow Technical Division One to run this show. Let's get to work."

* * *

**Enter Search Criteria**

**"Yamagishi"**

**Running Search…**

**No Results Found. Start new search? Y/N**

Resisting the urge to swear, Batgirl hit the "N" key, making sure to erase her electronic footprints and leave the computer in the same state that she'd found it in. Having made her way to Dr. Akagi's personal office, the dark lady had hoped to get more for all her efforts than a big fat zero.

Safe in the knowledge that the Project-E chairperson would be far too busy with the MAGI to come to her office any time soon, Batgirl sat back in the woman's chair and took a moment to think, ignoring the unpleasant odor of stale cigarette smoke that permeated the room.

Akagi had the highest level of MAGI clearance. She supposed it was _possible_ that there were still files only the Commander and Vice Commander could access, but it seemed unlikely. In any event, Shinji had described both of their offices to her, and she knew it would be virtually impossible for her to sneak in there without raising an alarm. There were no person-sized ventilation shafts going to those offices.

_So where else might the information be?_ She wondered, unwilling to give up yet.

Some kind of archive of physical files was possible as well, but she knew she didn't have the time to go searching through boxes and boxes of old records. Even if she did, she had no idea where NERV might keep such things. There was no records room marked on the map she'd downloaded.

So what did that leave?

_"There's a place below the main section of the base called Terminal Dogma,"_ Shinji's voice whispered in her mind as she abruptly recalled one of her many conversations with him. _"Father spends a lot of time there, usually with Ayanami. I have no idea what's down there, but it must be extremely important and secret. Only a handful of people in NERV are allowed into the place."_

That seemed like her best bet; the Commander might keep computers and databases down there that weren't connected to the MAGI, and the elevator that led down there was clearly marked on her map.

Leaving Dr. Akagi's office, Batgirl made her way to her new destination, using the ducts when she could and creeping through the halls when she couldn't. Even with her suit's stealth function, there were still a few uncomfortably close calls, thanks to all the extra security patrols in the hallways.

Eventually, however, she managed to make it to the elevator without alerting anyone to her presence. The elevator leading to the NERV headquarters' subbasement was a plain affair, indistinguishable from any others that she'd come across in the base. The hallway it was situated in, however, was dimly lit, and seemed to give off a foreboding air. There were no security cameras in this particular area, and none of the patrols came anywhere near it, she noticed. Clearly, Ikari didn't even want the base's security personnel seeing anything that had to do with Terminal Dogma.

She was unsurprised to find a keypad and card reader next to the doors, one that even her cryptographic sequencer couldn't open. What _did_ surprise her was that the panel was actually welded to the wall; she had hoped to remove it so she could get at the wiring and hack the device, but that clearly wasn't an option.

She had a lot of gadgets in her belt, but a power saw wasn't one of them. Neither was a sledgehammer.

Clearly, it was time to take a more direct approach. Taking a batarang in hand, the dark lady wedged it into the crack between the doors and used it to pry the doors open. They resisted every inch of the way, and it took all her considerable strength to force them apart. She was eventually able to widen the gap just enough for her to slip inside, and the moment she did so, the doors snapped shut with a crash that was loud enough to make her wince. Hopefully none of the guards had heard that.

The elevator didn't respond when she pressed the button to take her down, doubtlessly because she'd forced her way in rather than using a card and punching in the correct code. Fortunately, the panel the buttons were on inside the car _wasn't_ welded to the wall, and she had minimal difficulty in removing it and accessing the wires behind it. In seconds, the elevator was traveling downwards.

_What __**is**__ this place?_ Was her first thought as the doors swung open.

Terminal Dogma was far more vast than she'd expected, the elevator depositing her in an utterly huge chamber. Massive pits in the floor held piles of bones, most of which were many times larger than she herself was.

Either someone at NERV had discovered a vast deposit of dinosaur remains, or there had been _far_ more failed Evangelions than anyone outside the organization had ever believed.

Yet, curious though she was, Batgirl knew she had a limited amount of time. Ignoring the bones, she ran to the far side of the chamber, eventually reaching a door that led her to what looked like a very grungy little apartment. It was the type of room she would have expected to find in the bad parts of Tokyo-3, not in the secret subbasement of NERV headquarters.

_Stranger and stranger,_ she thought, moving on.

Next, she came to another large room, and this one appeared to be some sort of central hub for the whole underground section. There were two huge, heavily armored doors to be found in this area, and according to nearby signs, one led to the LCL Production Plant, while the other was for the Dummy Plug Manufacturing Facility. Batgirl didn't know why either of those two places required barriers that looked like they could withstand a blast from a 50mm shell, but she knew she didn't have the time to find out. Exploring some of the less well defended areas, she soon came upon a small, Spartan office.

_If I don't hit pay dirt this time…_

Running her crypto-cracker program, she was easily able to get past the computer's minimal security. She had a feeling that whoever owned this computer didn't think an intruder could ever get this far.

_Well, here goes,_ she thought, taking a deep breath as she began to type. Her heart was pounding inside her chest. One way or another, she knew she had to head out after she was done here. She had pushed her luck enough already.

**Enter Search Criteria**

**"Yamagishi"**

**Running Search…**

**1 File Found**

She actually stopped breathing for several seconds as she opened the file, finding that it pertained to something called "Project: Chained Wings." Apparently, it was what her parents had been working on before they had died. After years and years of searching, she finally had a clue about it.

Much as she wanted to start going through all the information right that very moment, she knew it would have to wait. Batgirl quickly downloaded the file to her palmtop computer, then headed back the way she had come.

Yet before she could even make it back to that incredibly out of place little apartment, the voice of the MAGI themselves started to blare from unseen speakers in the walls.

"Artificial intelligence has proposed self-destruction," it announced. "Self destruction will commence in thirty seconds if all three MAGI units unanimously approve."

* * *

Meanwhile, on the command center, the mood was one of barely restrained panic, as the group of assembled technicians and other support staff could only report on the Angel's progress and brace themselves for the end. Only Gendo Ikari appeared cool and unruffled in the face of his impending doom.

"It's taken over Balthasar!" Makoto shouted.

"The Angel's invading Casper!" Aoba called.

"Twenty seconds until self-destruct," the MAGI announced.

"Casper will be taken over in eighteen seconds!" Aoba added.

_If we lose, we'll only have three seconds to feel bad about it,_ Misato thought grimly.

She and Ritsuko had actually crawled inside of the MAGI Casper's hardware in order to perform the necessary reprogramming. The whole situation had largely reduced the Ops Director to serving as her friend's gopher, and now she could only watch as Ritsuko typed furiously at her laptop, hating that she was unable to hell.

"Ten," the MAGI began to count down. "Nine…eight…"

"Hurry, Rits!" she urged.

"Don't worry," the bottle blonde said as she typed furiously, "I should have one whole second to spare."

Misato groaned. "You're kidding, right?"

Ritsuko ignored her.

"Six…five…four…"

"Maya!" Ritsuko shouted. "Now!"

Both women stabbed the enter key on their respective keyboards at once, just as the countdown reached two seconds.

There was a long, terrible pause in the command center as everyone waited to see whether Ritsuko had succeeded or not. Everyone held their breath, as though afraid to make the slightest sound.

"Self destruct was cancelled by the artificial intelligence," the MAGI announced. "All systems returning to normal modes."

Cheers erupted from the command center, while Ritsuko simply leaned her head back and sighed in relief.

However, outside of the large container which held all of Casper's hardware, one of the terminals began to beep urgently. Quickly noticing it, Makoto cut his moment of celebration short and started typing at his keyboard, wanting to know what the alarm was about. His eyes widened when he read the computer's report.

"Sir!" he exclaimed, turning to the Commander. "The MAGI are reporting the presence of an intruder inside the base."

"Where is he?" Gendo demanded at once.

"Terminal Dogma."

Though it was impossible for anyone on one of the lower levels of the command center to see, Gendo's eyes widened slightly. Otherwise, however, he gave no outward sign of the shock he was feeling, giving orders without hesitation.

"Alert base security," he said. "Tell them to stop the intruder from escaping at all costs."

"Yes, sir," Makoto acknowledged. "Right away."

"And make sure they know," Gendo added, "that lethal force _is_ authorized."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **So, after she made it all the way to Terminal Dogma undetected, Mayumi will now have NERV security coming after her. Can even Batgirl pull off such an escape?

I had originally intended for Mayumi's whole infiltration mission into NERV headquarters to take one chapter, but the damn thing just getting longer and longer. Eventually, I realized I had to split it up into two chapters. Those of you who have played the Arkham games will of course recognize the explosive gel and the cryptographic sequencer from those games. To tell the truth, I came up with large chunks of this chapter by basically imagining this was an extra hard predator-type level in Arkham Asylum.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven:** Infiltration, Part Two

Kinjo had been a member of NERV Security for a long time, since it had been GEHIRN Security, in fact, and in that time, he'd seen a lot of things.

He had dealt with spies, both corporate and government, trying to steal important and highly classified information on Project-E. He had once helped fend off a group of protestors who had attempted to storm the entrance to headquarters. He had _often_ witnessed members of Section Two doing stupid and violent things.

Yet one thing he had _never_ seen was an incident where someone managed to breach Terminal Dogma.

Even ignoring past experience, Kinjo frankly had no damned idea how someone could have managed to sneak past them and make it down there. True, nobody had been patrolling the hallway where the elevator was located, since the Commander generally didn't like anybody being in that area, but they had been in all the surrounding areas.

NERV Security wasn't composed of the brutish morons who made up Section Two. Quite the opposite, in fact. Most of the security force consisted of highly trained veterans of the Impact Wars. That someone could have successfully snuck past them and made it to the base's most secret and well defended areas was inconceivable to him.

_Probably just some damn sensor ghost, or the MAGI is still screwed up,_ he thought.

Regardless, the Commander had ordered security to scramble to the elevator that led to Terminal Dogma, so Kinjo and the rest of his squad had double-timed it there. Since none of them were authorized to go into the place, though, all they could do was wait.

"Look alive, people," the squad leader chastised them. "This is the only way into or out of Terminal Dogma. The intruder _has_ to come this way eventually."

_Or there __**is**__ no intruder, and we'll just stand here like idiots for a few hours until the geniuses up at the command center realize that,_ Kinjo thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

Well, whatever. Stupid though this whole thing might be, he was still getting paid for it, same as he would have if he'd been doing something productive. Eventually the Commander would give this up, or another squad would relieve them.

Completely certain that their intruder was really just some ghost in the MAGI, Kinjo almost didn't react when the elevator released a chime, signaling that the car had reached their floor.

_I'll be damned,_ he thought in amazement, raising his gun. Someone really had been in Terminal Dogma.

"Remember, we want to capture him if possible," the squad leader said. "But if he makes one false move, don't hesitate to fire."

Every member of the squad was holding their breath as they waited for the elevator to open and reveal the man who could evade even NERV's defenses.

The doors slid open to reveal…absolutely no one. The elevator car was empty.

_The hell?_ Kinjo wondered. There was no way that the car should've moved down to Terminal Dogma and then back up on its own.

Then a small metal canister landed on the floor of the elevator, seemingly having fallen from the ceiling of the car.

"_Grenade!_" the squad leader screamed, but it was too late.

The canister exploded, but rather than the eruption of fire and shrapnel that Kinjo had expected, dark gray smoke burst forth, quickly spreading to fill the elevator car and most of the hallway outside.

_Smoke bomb,_ he thought, relaxing very slightly as he realized his body wasn't about to be filled with deadly metal shards.

Unfortunately, they still had the intruder to deal with, he thought as he belatedly figured out exactly what had happened. The guy, whoever the hell he was, must have assumed that people would be waiting for him when he came up. There was a small, concealed hatch in the roof of the elevator car, which the intruder must have used to get on top of the thing.

Kinjo heard the fellow members of his squad crying out in pain around him, and he desperately tried to see what was happening through the thick smoke. It was no use, however; he couldn't see his damn nose, never mind the intruder. He didn't dare take a shot when he couldn't see, not when so many of his comrades were around him.

Then he felt someone grab his arm with seemingly inhuman strength, twisting it and forcing him to drop the submachine gun he held. Kinjo resisted fiercely, but he'd been caught entirely by surprise.

He heard the loud, almost insect-like clicking of a taser being fired, and then felt the weapon being pressed to his neck. He cried out in pain, then collapsed to the floor.

* * *

"Don't worry, Commander Ikari," Lieutenant Shiro of NERV Security confidently assured Gendo. "Delta team has the elevator surrounded. There's no possible way for the intruder to evade them."

Gendo glared coldly at the small hologram that hovered over the projector in the arm of his command chair. "I certainly hope so," he said frostily.

Confident though he was, Shiro couldn't help but wince. The Commander's tone promised _great_ suffering for him if they didn't stop the intruder.

Before he could reply, a burst of noise suddenly came from Shiro's terminal. It was indecipherable to everyone on the command center, but the look on the lieutenant's face made it very clear that the news wasn't good.

"Delta team!" he barked, stabbing a button on his terminal. "Delta team, come in!"

"What's going on?" Gendo demanded sharply.

Shiro swallowed. "Delta team has gone silent."

"Then we must assume that the intruder has neutralized them," Gendo all but growled.

"R-Right," Shiro stammered. "I'm directing other teams to intercept her now. I've ordered all available personnel to scramble, but a significant number of my men are investigating a report of a possible trespasser just outside headquarters. There will be some routes that we won't be able to cover by the time she reaches them. If she picks just right, she'll evade my men."

"Station your people wherever you think is best," Gendo said.

"Yes, sir," Shiro said, looking miserable. For once, he would have much preferred it if the Commander had chosen to micromanage his department, if only because then he wouldn't bear _all_ the responsibility if the intruder escaped.

However, orders were orders. Shiro quickly contacted the other security teams, ordering them to guard the routes which he thought the intruder was most likely to take. Then, there was nothing to do but wait.

At least until one of the security cameras briefly picked up someone in black sprinting through the halls, in an area past the gauntlet of heavily armed security guards.

"Damn it!" Shiro hissed, then, quickly but still reluctantly, informed the Commander of what had happened. "He must have gotten lucky. That's the only possible explanation. I'm redeploying my forces. We'll catch him yet. He won't get by them again."

A few minutes later, they learned that the intruder had slipped past them once more.

"This is impossible!" Shiro exclaimed, becoming less and less composed with every moment that went by. "I'm redeploying our forces again. We'll get this bastard eventually, whoever he is."

Gendo was very much starting to doubt that, however. Clearly, their adversary was clever and skilled. Yet still, the Commander couldn't figure out how the intruder had avoided the security teams; Shiro had done a competent job of deploying them. Slipping past once might have been luck, but twice was more than that.

It was almost as if the intruder…

"He knows," Gendo said.

"What?" Shiro blinked.

"The intruder knows where you're telling the security teams to go," the Commander said. "He must have taken a comm. from one of the members of Delta team."

Stunned, Shiro silently opened and closed his mouth several times, looking very much like a goldfish.

"I'll order the squads to act independently and maintain radio silence," he said. "They won't be able to coordinate, but—"

"No," Gendo cut him off. "Keep acting as you have been."

Shiro blinked. "But why?"

"Just do it. Ikari out," the Commander said curtly, pressing a button on his chair's armrest and causing the holographic display to wink out.

The instant his attention was no longer on Shiro, everyone in the command center abruptly started trying to look busy, fiercely pretending that they hadn't just been eavesdropping on the whole conversation.

"Fuyutski," Gendo said, rising. "You have command here."

"Of course," the older man said, looking surprised. "But what are you going to do?"

Gendo ignored the question, walking over to the lone security guard standing in the command center. "Give me your comm.," he demanded.

Wordlessly, the man removed a small, wireless ear piece, which he handed to the Commander.

"Ikari?" Fuyutski asked again.

"I'm going to take care of the intruder," Gendo answered, placing the small device into his own ear, then left the command center without another word.

* * *

Batgirl was determined not to let her mission end in failure now. Not when she had come so far. Not when she had the precious information in hand. She _would_ escape from NERV headquarters, whatever it took.

**"Alpha Squad, cover corridor 22-C. Beta Squad, take up position in front of the Silver Bell. Gamma Squad, get to Access Point J. Double time!"** the voice of Lieutenant Shiro crackled through her stolen ear piece.

In a flash, her modified palmtop was in her hand, showing her the map of the base's interior. It only took a second for her to identify the neglected routes, and she quickly altered her course to take the nearest one.

Moments later, she entered a massive room where NERV stored many of the chemicals they used in their day-to-day operations. Enormous metal storage tanks dotted the floor, containing everything from LCL to coolant to diesel fuel. The door Batgirl had emerged from let out onto a wide catwalk which was held high above the vats by a number of cables.

And standing on the catwalk, blocking her way, was Gendo Ikari, with a half dozen men in black suits behind him, each of them pointing a pistol directly at her.

The caped crusader reacted automatically, whirling back toward the door. However, it slammed shut in her face with a deep bang, blocking her only means of retreat. Scowling, she turned back to the Commander and the band of black suits.

"Batgirl," he said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I thought it was you."

"Ikari," she growled.

"Section Two and NERV Security use different radio frequencies, in case you were wondering." he said, just a hint of a sardonic tone creeping into his otherwise flat voice.

She had figured. "One warning, Ikari," she said, her tone frosty. "Get out of my way now, or else."

"You are in no position to be making demands," the Commander answered just as coldly. "Stand down."

"No, thanks," Batgirl replied.

With a flick of her wrist, a batarang appeared in her right hand. The Section Two agents fired almost instantly, but the dark lady managed to throw her weapon before the bullets reached her and sent her staggering, even with her suit keeping them from killing her. The weapon knifed through the air, its razor-sharp edge striking and easily cutting through several of the cables which held up the right side of the catwalk.

Despite having just endured Section Two's withering assault, Batgirl reacted immediately, grabbing the grapple gun at her belt and firing it. The hook reached a pipe that was suspended near the ceiling and held fast. Abandoning the catwalk, the caped crusader began to swing across the room, toward the exit.

Gendo and the Section Two men were not quiet so well prepared. Three of the men in the black suits managed to get a tight hold of the catwalk's hand rails, hanging on even as the platform twisted at a crazy angle. The other three weren't as quick and went tumbling, landing painfully on the metal lid of one of the massive tanks.

The Commander faired worse, however. Much worse. He too went falling from the catwalk, heading toward the top of the tank beneath him. Unlike the Section Two men who had landed painfully on the metal, Gendo Ikari had the intensely bad luck to plummet straight through a hatch on the tank which had been left open.

Hearing the splash, Batgirl turned her head to look behind her and winced when she realized what had happened. Despite knowing what Gendo Ikari might potentially be responsible for, the dark lady still hoped that whatever chemical that tank contained wasn't lethal.

Then she reached the doorway on the other side of the room and continued her escape.

* * *

"Ikari? Ikari, come in!" Fuyutski called urgently, sitting at one of the command center's communications terminals.

With nothing better to do once Gendo had left, Fuyutski had gotten everyone started on an abbreviated version of the standard post-Angel procedure. Having tried to act as though everything had been normal during the attack shortened the amount of time it took to stand down considerably. With the civilian population having never evacuated, and the city having remained in its peacetime configuration, all he'd really had to do was order that the Evangelions be retrieved and that a full diagnostic of the MAGI be performed.

Which left him completely free to worry about his former student.

"Ikari, damn it to hell, where are you?" he snapped, growing increasingly irritated with every moment that passed.

"Commander Fuyutski," another man's voice came through. "This is Sato of Section Two. Things didn't go too well down here."

The former professor scowled. "Well, don't keep me in suspense, man," he barked. "What the hell happened? Where's Ikari?"

The Section Two agent gave the Vice Commander a quick rundown of what had occurred. "The intruder cut some of the cables holding up the catwalk so she could escape," Sato finished. "She got past us. Commander Ikari fell into one of the tanks."

"Ikari fell onto one of the tanks?"

"No, Ikari fell _into_ one of the tanks," Sato clarified. "Some damn idiot left a hatch on the top open."

Fuyutski could feel a ball of dread forming in his stomach. If the tank Gendo had fallen into contained LCL, then he would be perfectly fine. However, the Vice Commander knew that were plenty of other chemicals stored in that room, many of them dangerous or outright deadly.

"What's inside that tank?" he asked reluctantly.

"I don't know," Sato answered grimly. "I can't see the markings on the damned tank from where I am. It could be anything."

Fuyutski grimaced, closing the channel to Sato without another word. Picking up a nearby phone, he punched in the extension for another part of the base, and someone answered almost immediately.

"NERV Medical."

"This is Fuyutski," the old man said. "Commander Ikari's fallen into a tank full of an unknown substance in Chemical Storage Room Number Four. Get him out of there and treat him, but do it discreetly."

It was to the credit of the guy at the front desk in NERV Medical that he didn't miss a beat. "Yes, Commander."

Hanging up the phone, Fuyutski went back to the radio, switching to the frequency NERV Security used. "Lieutenant Shiro."

"Commander Fuyutski?" the man replied after a second, sounding surprised to hear NERV's number two man on the line.

"Ikari set a trap for our intruder," the Vice Commander said without preamble. "It failed. I need you to do whatever it takes to catch him."

"I understand, sir," Shiro replied, then paused for a moment, considering the situation. "As near as I can tell, the intruder's nearly out of the base by this point. I don't think we'll be able to stop him before he can leave the pyramid, _but_ if we shut down the train lines that run to the surface and close all the tunnels, we should be able to trap him inside the Geofront."

"Do it," Fuyutski ordered.

"Yes, sir," Shiro responded crisply.

Closing the channel, the Vice Commander closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of anything else he could or should be doing in this situation. Not coming up with anything, he leaned back in his chair, heaving a long sigh.

"I am much too old for this crap," he grumbled.

* * *

Batgirl was panting by the time she managed to make it outside. Though the dark lady made it a point to keep herself in peak physical shape at all times, even she had her limits. Her frenzied escape from the NERV pyramid had pushed her toward them, and she wasn't safe yet. Not by a long shot.

**"ATTENTION, INTRUDER!"** A man's voice boomed from a bullhorn in the distance.** "THERE IS NO WAY TO ESCAPE THE GEOFRONT! WE HAVE YOU TRAPPED! SURRENDER PEACEFULLY, AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED! CONTINUE TO TRY AND EVADE US, AND WE MAY BE FORCED TO USE LETHAL FORCE."**

Batgirl ignored the warning and kept on running, paying no heed to the way her lungs were starting to burn. She had no intention of just giving herself up, no matter how grim things might have looked.

Which was good, because things were starting to look very grim indeed. Her suit was running very low on power by this point—too low for any further use of the stealth function—and her options for escape were very limited. NERV had already sealed off all of the exits that they could seal off, practically turning the entire Geofront into a giant cage. To make matters worse, Section Two had joined NERV Security's search for her.

Still, she wasn't giving up hope. It was nearly twilight, and she felt confident that if she could evade her pursuers for just a bit longer, she could make it back to the surface and lose them.

It was just a matter of avoiding them for that long, Batgirl mused as she took cover behind a large tree, hoping that she'd be able to rest for a moment or two before continuing on.

Unfortunately, fate wasn't that kind to the dark lady. She'd barely been still for a second when she heard movement from nearby. Peeking out of the brush, she was just able to see one of the men from NERV Security approaching. He was searching the area around him quite thoroughly, so there was little doubt that he would find her if she remained where she was.

_I have to take him out first, _she decided.

It would be difficult, even for her. If she used a batarang, he would doubtlessly shout and draw a dozen more men to her immediate area. She had to get close to him, which meant crossing a good deal of fairly open ground. Once he got near to her tree, she was sure he'd keep his eyes—and his gun—pointed right at it.

_It couldn't have been one of those idiots in Section Two, could it?_ She wondered irritably.

The man turned to examine a nearby bush, unknowingly showing Batgirl his back. Immediately, the caped crusader broke from cover, keeping low as she moved toward the man.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she crossed the distance between them with exceedingly careful footsteps, knowing that she was probably doomed if he caught her. No matter how desperately she told herself that she wouldn't—_couldn't_—get captured now, when she had the precious information about her parents' last work in her possession, it wouldn't help her if twenty heavily armed men converged upon her exact position.

_Just a little closer,_ she thought. _Just don't turn around for one more second…_

* * *

Hayashi hated the damn forest in the Geofront. He'd hated the wilderness in general ever since he'd spent months on end enduring jungle combat, back during the Impacts Wars when he'd been in the JSSDF.

It was part of the reason he'd signed on with NERV Security rather than reenlisting; he'd figured that he'd spend his days patrolling clean and orderly hallways, not some godforsaken forest where the enemy could be waiting behind every bush. More importantly, he'd believed that, working for NERV, he'd never find himself assigned somewhere that brought him back to that hellish time.

Apparently, he'd been wrong.

_And it's not bad enough that it's a forest, _he thought irritably. _It had to be __**this**__ damn forest._

Though plant life thrived in the Geofront, NERV's attempts at populating the subterranean cave with fauna had been far less successful. There was a thriving insect population, but very few birds or mammals to speak of. The result was that the area was far quieter than a normal forest, and that made him even more on edge and jittery than being out in the "wilderness" otherwise would have. It felt unnatural.

_The hell with taking this intruder alive,_ he decided. _If I find him, I'm just going to shoot the bastard and say it was life or death. The Commanders probably won't mind._

He heard a noise from nearby, and his whole body tensed. His head snapped from side to side, looking for whatever had made the sound as he broke out into a sweat. It took every ounce of willpower he had to not just start spraying bullets into the foliage.

Hayashi stood completely still for a long moment, ears perked for any further sound. However, the forest was quiet, almost deathly so.

_Just my imagination?_ He wondered.

Not impossible, especially out here. Still, he had that little tingle at the base of his spine. He hadn't survived the Impact Wars by ignoring that tingle.

Hayashi heard a twig snapping behind him.

He whirled around, raising his gun.

And came within a hair's breadth of pumping Shinji Ikari full of lead.

"Oh, god, please don't shoot!" the naked boy yelped, raising his hands. Unfortunately, this required him to take them away from their place covering his groin.

Hayashi barely noticed. He was shaking, his heart pounding harder in his chest than it had been a moment ago as what he'd almost done really sank in. Even if the boy's relationship with his father was as bad as the rumors said, if he'd killed the pilot of Unit One…

Hayashi didn't even want to _think_ about the Commander's reaction.

"What the hell are you doing out here?!" he growled, lowering his gun.

Shinji cringed, but lowered his hands, covering himself again. "Um, after they ejected the plugs into the Geofront, I peeked out and saw some black…thing sort of gliding down in here. It looked like it landed near the base. I felt I should go and warn everybody that there's…something out here."

The NERV Security man ran a hand down his face. "You're a little late, kid," he said. "We've known there was an intruder for a while now. In fact, there's a bunch of people out here looking for him now. You're lucky you didn't go shot by one of them."

"Oh…" Shinji said, wilting.

Hayashi sighed. "Let me escort you back to base," he said.

"Th-thanks," Shinji stammered, looking supremely embarrassed.

"Come on," Hayashi said, and took off back toward headquarters, secretly relieved for the opportunity to leave the damn forest.

"Hey, um, sir?" Shinji spoke up timidly as he fell in step behind the man. "You don't happen to have anything I could wear on you, do you?"

Wordlessly, Hayashi plucked the red beret off his head and held it out to the Third Child.

"…no, thanks," Shinji said.

* * *

Not too much later, Batgirl emerged from the Third Child's abandoned plug, grimacing beneath her cowl at the smell of the LCL. Shinji had never told her that the stuff smelled like blood. He was tougher than she gave him credit for if he was able to tolerate it on a regular basis.

_Shinji, I don't know what possessed you to go wandering around the Geofront, but you left me the perfect hiding place when you did,_ she thought, making a mental note to do something nice for him later.

With the gauntlet of armed men tightening around her every minute, the dark lady had nearly given into despair and abandoned hope, even after she'd successfully knocked out the man who'd come so close to finding her. Discovering Unit One's test plug, and finding it empty, had been a godsend. So far, none of the men searching the area had even approached the metal cylinder, but she knew that wouldn't last long. They had to find Shinji sooner or later, and once they did, one of them would eventually put two and two together and check his plug.

Fortunately for the dark lady, twilight was truly upon them now. In less than an hour, it would be dark.

It was time to move.

"Infrared," she whispered, and immediately her vision shifted, lighting up the various men looking for her in bright colors against a dark blue backdrop.

There were still quite a few of them around, but she was no longer at the center of the group. Apparently, they still believed she was in the general area, but they had a much more vague idea of her location than they'd had before she'd found her hiding place.

"Normal mode," she said, not wanting to use up any more of her suit's nearly depleted power supply.

Making her way across the Geofront as quickly as she dared, she headed for the train station that most NERV employees used to commute to and from work. She knew, of course, that the trains wouldn't be running, but she figured that the tunnels were her best bet for escape.

_It looks empty,_ she thought as she approached. _They must have suspended all service to and from the Geofront because of me._

That was just fine with her; no passengers meant there was nobody around for her to avoid. Keeping her guard up, she deftly avoided the gaze of the station's security camera, heading for the mouth of the tunnel that led back to Tokyo-3, and for her, freedom.

She almost made it inside before a thick steel door abruptly slammed shut, blocking the tunnel completely.

_No!_ She thought.

Over a dozen NERV Security men emerged from their hiding places, guns at the ready. Batgirl was already moving to get to cover as they did, hurling several batarangs even as she rolled behind a concrete barrier. The weapons swirled through the air, striking the overhead lights with perfect accuracy and plunging the station into complete darkness.

The sound of machine gun fire filled the air, and the dark lady crawled across the ground on her belly, eventually reaching a small booth where NERV personnel had to get their ID cards swiped before they could leave. It wasn't exactly a fortress, but it was better than nothing.

Eventually, the gunfire stopped. Batgirl risked peeking over the counter. "Infrared," she whispered.

Dozens of heat signatures appeared before her eyes, circling the train station. They must have realized that she'd probably come here and had set a trap for her.

_Damn,_ she thought. She should have checked before she'd gone in, but she hadn't wanted to use up any more of her suit's power.

Then, as if reacting to her thoughts, the image her cowl's lenses were giving her was briefly scrambled, before the infrared went out all together. The batsuit was completely out of juice now.

The dark lady opened and closed her fist a few times. The fabric covering her body felt more rigid now. With no power, she definitely couldn't use stealth mode again. Her enhanced strength was gone, too. The smart material would still block small arms fire, but with NERV Security wielding submachine guns, that didn't matter much.

**"INTRUDER!"** the man with the bullhorn blared. **"WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO SURRENDER YOURSELF PEACEFULLY, OR WE WILL COME IN THERE! IF YOU DO NOT COME OUT WITHIN THE ALLOTED TIME, WE WILL SHOOT TO KILL!"**

The dark lady couldn't help but smirk slightly. Clearly, it was time to play her last ace.

Reaching for her right boot, Batgirl opened a hidden compartment in the heel, taking out a device that was perhaps twice the size of her thumbnail. She pressed a button on it, and a small red light on it began to blink. Otherwise, there was no sign that anything was happening.

Not dismayed in the least, the caped crusader slipped the object into her belt and contented herself to wait. Two minutes ought to be plenty of time at this hour.

Meanwhile, all around the train station, one of the few animal species that _had_ managed to thrive in the Geofront collectively started to stir. Where before there had been darkness, countless pairs of softly glowing eyes could now be seen among the tree tops.

* * *

"You're sure she's in there?" Fuyutski asked.

"I'm positive, sir," Shiro said. "The only question is whether she's alive or dead. Either way, we have her."

The NERV Security man, still commanding his people from his control room, was displayed on one of the smaller screen on the command center. The main viewer showed an image of the train station where Batgirl was currently trapped.

_Batgirl,_ he thought, still barely able to believe it, despite having by now gotten much more detailed accounts from the Section Two agents who'd accompanied Gendo earlier. Skilled though she might be, he could barely believe that someone so young—possibly no older than the pilots!—could infiltrate the base and lead NERV's forces on such a long chase.

Yet there was no denying the evidence.

"She's still alive," Fuyutski told Shiro. "She didn't come this far to die now."

"Alive or not, her game's over," the lieutenant said firmly and with a very militant gleam in his eyes. By this point, he clearly saw Batgirl's success as a smear on the honor of NERV Security, and it was obvious that he was keen to avenge it. "It's completely _impossible_ for her to escape this."

After what had already happened, Fuyutski wasn't nearly so sure. "I hope you're…"

He trailed off as the speakers started to emit a series of very high pitched squeaking sounds. Frowning, Fuyutski looked down at the technicians on the second level of the command center.

"Somebody clear that static out of the audio," he demanded.

"That's….that's not static, sir," Ibuki said quietly, sounding very ill at ease.

"Then what is it?" the Vice Commander asked, bewildered.

It was the command center's main screen that gave him his answer. Black shapes started to flit in front of the picture, moving too quickly for him to identify, as the sounds increased in frequency and volume.

Then they converged upon a train station, a billowing, undulating cloud of dark things, and Fuyutski finally realized what they were.

Bats.

"There must be _thousands_ of them," Makoto breathed.

An instant later, the channel used by NERV Security was full of frightened, cursing voices. The sound of gun shots—fired in panic—sounded, loud cracks among the high pitched shrieks of the countless bats.

"Cease fire! Cease fire, you idiots!" Shiro barked at the NERV Security men.

"They'll never catch her in that mess," Fuyutski scowled once the guns had fallen silent.

"What do we do?" Shiro asked, completely baffled by the bizarre situation his men were in.

"Tell your people to pull back and wait," Fuyutski said. "She can't hide in there forever."

"Right," Shiro said, quickly relaying the orders.

The NERV Security men were only too happy to comply, retreating a safe distance away from the cloud of bats, many of them with numerous small scratches from the creatures' claws.

However, after only a few moments, the incredible, swirling mass of bats started to _move_. Fuyutski had no doubt that the dark lady was at the very center of it, somehow leading the creatures along like a pied piper would lead rats.

"They're heading for one of the maintenance shafts," Aoba reported.

Fuyutski resisted the urge to swear. There was no sealing off those damned shafts like they had sealed off the train tunnels. Since they went straight up, no one had ever seen much of a need for such barriers. However, he had little doubt that Batgirl would be able to scale it.

"Follow her," he hissed. "And contact the T3PD. Have them waiting by the mouth of the shaft. Tell them to scramble a chopper for pursuit. I want eyes on those bats every second until we have the girl they're hiding."

"Right!" the assembled technicians replied.

With a tired sigh, the old professor leaned back in what was usually Gendo's chair, having no choice but to wait.

* * *

There were days (and plenty of nights) when Jun Godo hated his job. There were a lot of them, in fact. However, this night definitely took the cake.

He hadn't been pleased when he'd learned that NERV had ordered them to apprehend someone who had managed to infiltrate their headquarters and was now making her way to the surface. So far as he was concerned, the T3PD existed to serve and protect the people of Tokyo-3, _not_ NERV.

NERV had its own private armed forces, one of which sometimes seemed to cause more trouble than the city's criminal element.

However, the people who ran the T3PD apparently disagreed with him, so he had gone to where he'd been told, along with dozens of other cops. Somebody had even managed to get a chopper for the occasion.

Things had _really_ taken a turn for the worse when he'd learned exactly who they were chasing.

Batgirl. The caped crusader who had given him a real chance at putting away one of the city's worst crime bosses. The dark lady who'd proven herself more dedicated to the ideal of justice than most of the police force. The young woman who was practically his partner in fighting crime.

_Can I really do this?_ He wondered as he and his fellow officers followed the cloud of bats as it billowed down the street. _Can I really arrest her?_

Of course, he _could_. The thing with the bats was a cute trick, but it had to fail eventually.

The real question was whether he _should_ do it.

Batgirl had broken the law by infiltrating the NERV base. There was no question about that. On the other hand, NERV was a shadowy organization whose members often did things of questionable morality, and its leadership often ran the city like a totalitarian state.

_I'm a cop. I swore to uphold the law. Even the laws I don't agree with,_ he told himself with wavering certainty.

No matter how much he thought of duty and oaths, the idea of arresting Batgirl at NERV's behest still struck him as nothing less than perverse.

_But what am I supposed to do? _He wondered. He wasn't the only cop present, not by a long shot; he couldn't just let Batgirl go, even if he was comfortable with the idea.

He supposed he could turn on his fellow officers, which might buy her enough time to escape, but could he make himself ruin his own career and his life so someone more effective at pursuing justice than he was could continue her crusade?

Did his conscience demand that of him?

"Look!" another one of the cops present shouted. "The bats are leaving!"

Godo watched as the countless winged rodents began to disperse, taking off in all directions. It would only be seconds before Batgirl was exposed and vulnerable. It was decision time.

His eyes darted from one of his fellow officers to the next, trying to pick out the ones he knew were corrupt. It was most of them.

If he shot to wound, rather than to kill, then maybe she'd be able to slip away in all the chaos…

Godo tensed, two opposite impulses—self-preservation and his sense of justice—at war within him.

The last of the bats flew off, revealing only an empty street. Somehow, somewhere along the line, Batgirl had given them the slip.

Jun Godo relaxed, exhaling explosively. His night hadn't turned out to be quite as bad as he'd expected.

* * *

So far, Bane wasn't enjoying this assignment much. He had hoped, very much, that the things he'd learn about his prey while researching her would give him a newfound respect for her. Make him think that she might be a worthy target.

So far, however…

"Tell me what you know about Batgirl," he demanded, holding the young boy several feet up off the ground with one arm, pressing him into the wall of the alleyway where he'd taken the child in order to interrogate him.

"I…I don't know anything," the youth stammered. "Just the rumors that _everyone_ knows. I swear!"

"You're lying," Bane said, tightening his grip on the boy. "I did my homework. I know you've been boasting about your encounter with her. Tell me about it. Everything you remember."

"All right, all right!" the boy cried, panicking. "Just ease up, okay. I can't breathe!"

Bane marginally loosened his grip.

"Okay," the boy said, gasping for breath. "I was coming home from the drug store one night. I'd just gone to pick up my mother's medication, and these guys from this street gang called the Bloods start harassing me. They tell me that I have to pay the toll…"

For the next several minutes, the youth told Bane how Batgirl had "totally wiped the street with the Bloods", going to great lengths to emphasize how "completely and fully awesome" the dark lady was.

Bane was…far from impressed. So far, his research had suggested that Batgirl was capable of dealing with petty criminals, and of being a thorn in the side of an organization that was far more used to dealing with giant monsters than human antagonists. Despite all the effort she probably expended on making herself seem fearsome and invulnerable to others, Bane saw through her.

She would not be a challenge, and he saw no need for any of his more elaborate assassination schemes. Indeed, he felt that he'd wasted his time simply doing his research on her.

All he needed was to confront her himself, and she would die.

"And that's all I know, Mister!" the boy said as he finished. "I swear! Now, please, let me go!"

"No," Bane said flatly.

"No? What do you mean 'no'?" the boy asked, bewildered. "I told you everything I know, so now you have to—"

He didn't get any further before Bane placed his free hand on the boy's throat and began to squeeze.

* * *

For all that he might have seemed like some dark titan while looming over the rest of the NERV bridge staff from the top level of the command center, Gendo Ikari woke in much the same manner that most men did.

Which was to say, not very gracefully.

Groaning slightly, the Commander sat up in bed, rubbing at his temples. He almost immediately realized that he wasn't in his bedroom, or any room that he was very familiar with for that matter. It looked almost like one of the rooms in the NERV Medical Ward. Some sort of bulky medical machine sat in a corner, emitting a steady hum.

_I don't feel ill,_ he thought, looking down at his hands.

He felt…strange. He couldn't have defined that strangeness, nor put it into words, no matter how great his motivation to do so. Yet neither could he have denied it.

Still, he seemed to be perfectly functional, and he certainly wasn't in any pain. So why was he in this place?

Looking around, Gendo spotted his glasses sitting on a nearby table and quickly picked them up, putting them on. However, something was wrong; donning his glasses had made his vision noticeably worse rather than better.

Frowning, and experiencing a mounting sense of unease, the Commander removed the spectacles and held them up to the light.

A thin layer of frost had formed on the lenses. Gendo found that truly bizarre; he didn't feel cold at all. If anything, the room was a bit too warm for his liking.

Using the sleeve of his green-blue hospital pajamas (he really would have to find out who had ordered these for NERV Medical someday and have him fired, if not shot), he wiped his glasses clean, then put them on again.

This time, his vision was much improved, allowing him to get a better look at his surroundings. He _was_ in NERV Medical, he realized, but not one of the regular patient rooms. Instead, he was in one of the high security rooms, which was completely armored and insulated from the outside world. He had had them constructed in case any of the pilots suffered from severe mental contamination as a result of their battles with the Angels, or if someone was directly infected by Angelic matter in some way.

To say that he'd never expected to find himself in one would be a considerable understatement.

Examining his surroundings further, he found that everything in the room boasted a thin layer of what seemed to be frost, just like his glasses had. Not only that, but the machine he'd originally assumed was a piece of medical equipment looked more like a high power air conditioner from up close. Or perhaps it would have been more accurate to call it a refrigeration unit.

It seemed to be going at full blast, so why didn't he feel cold?

The phone of the bedside table started to ring, and Gendo quickly went over to it and picked it up. "Ikari here."

"Ikari, it's Fuyutski," the voice on the other end greeted him. "Glad to see that you're up."

Gendo's eyes flicked to the ceiling as he belatedly noticed the camera hanging in the corner. He decided not to waste time dancing around the subject. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"There was…an accident," Fuyutski said reluctantly. "It happened when you went to confront Batgirl with that Section Two detail."

Batgirl. Yes, he remembered now, but the conclusion to their confrontation still eluded him.

"What happened?" he asked again, his grip on the receiver tightening until he could hear the plastic casing creak.

"You fell into one of the tanks in the chemical storage room," Fuyutski said. "It took quite some time to get you out of the thing. Considering how long you were completely immersed, it's a wonder that you're still alive."

"What chemical was it?" Gendo pressed, growing more impatient by the second.

Fuyutski sighed. "It was a cryogenic solution, Ikari," he said. "The same stuff we use when we need to put one of the Evangelions into stasis. The doctors tell me it fundamentally altered your body chemistry somehow."

Gendo looked around. The frost, the freezer unit; it was all starting to make sense. "You mean…?"

"You can only survive in subzero temperatures."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Okay, quick question, did anybody forget that Shinji was also out there, wandering around in the Geofront, until the NERV Security guy found him?

Anyway, here's the second half of Mayumi's high risk plunge into NERV, and the start of Gendo as a Bat villain. The original plan was for Gendo to fall into a vat of a much more vague substance, and come out with green hair, chalk white skin, and a rapidly eroding grip on sanity. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it simply didn't fit, while this definitely does.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve:** Aftermath

When Motomu heard the distinctive sound of a motorcycle as the lady of the manor pulled into the Batcave, he thought he might collapse with relief.

He somehow managed to just rush over to the spot where Batgirl was currently parking the bike instead.

"Mayumi-san, are you all right?" he asked. "I heard on the news that you had garnered some police attention."

"I'm fine, Motomu," she replied as she pulled off her cowl and shook out her long hair, "and evading the police was one of the easiest parts of tonight." She added as she set the bike's kickstand with a quick jab from her foot.

"You're quite certain you're uninjured?" he pressed, looking her over carefully for any sign of a wound.

"Don't be a mother hen, Motomu," she said, annoyed. "I'm fine."

Reluctantly, he took a few steps back, taking comfort from the lack of visible blood and the fact that she didn't seem to be favoring either of her legs.

It wasn't that he didn't recognize just how skilled his employer was, but Motomu knew that infiltrating NERV headquarters posed a great challenge even for the mighty Batgirl. Unlike the common street thug, the butler was quite well aware of how mortal Mayumi was.

"Perhaps you should rest for a while?" he asked, not quite willing to give up yet. "The ordeal you've just had must've been utterly exhausting."

"I'm _fine_, Motomu," she insisted. "Better than fine, in fact, because I may finally have it. The answers I've searched for may be here in my hand." She held up the thumb drive triumphantly, looking as close to giddy as she ever allowed herself to become.

"I see. My congratulations," he said, realizing just how futile it would be to get her to catch some sleep at the moment.

"Thank you," she replied, sitting down at before her imposing main computer, not even bothering to change out of her Batsuit first. Motomu could tell just from the way she moved that its power reserves had been drained, which made it much more unpleasant to wear and move around in.

"Would you like something to eat, then?" he asked, thinking that he could at least hope to get a bit of sustenance into her.

"Bah, encrypted," the raven-haired girl muttered to herself as she worked, ignoring him. "I might have known. I'll get through it, though…I'm sorry, Motomu, did you say something?"

"I asked you if you'd like something to eat," the butler repeated calmly.

"Fine, fine," she with a dismissive little wave.

Of course, he knew that this meant "I'll eat if it'll make you go away for a few minutes and quit hovering over me", but he considered that good enough. The butler silently left the Batcave, heading for the manor's kitchen.

He returned a few minutes later, carrying a tray with a bowl of steaming soup on it. However, it was immediately obvious that Mayumi wasn't going to eat it.

In the brief time that he'd been gone, the lady of the house had fallen asleep. She was slumped back in her large chair, her chin resting against her chest, and her glasses had slid halfway down her nose.

The butler chuckled softly to himself. If anyone else were to see her now, he doubted they would have believed that she could possibly be Batgirl, even though she was seated in the middle of the Dark Lady's high tech hideout and clad in the signature black costume from the neck down. She just looked too young and innocent to possibly be the scourge of criminals throughout the Tokyo area.

Leaving the cave again, Motomu soon returned, this time carrying a blanket. He covered Mayumi with it, then carefully removed her glasses. With that task done, he headed back toward the stairs that led to the parts of Yamagishi Manor which weren't a secret.

Yet before he did, Motomu paused long enough to gaze at the thumb drive Mayumi had brought back, which was still plugged into the cave's ORACLE supercomputer.

He didn't know for certain if Mayumi had succeeded, if she had truly found the answer to the mystery which had plagued her for years. He hoped she had, though, and not just because it would help to bring her some desperately needed closure.

Though he had not obsessed over the murder of her parents like Mayumi herself had, he still wondered if the man who had pulled the trigger was really just random psychotic, or if he was, as Mayumi had long believed, part of something much larger and more sinister.

Though he had been their employee, he had still held considerable affection for the Yamagishis. So if it turned out that Mayumi's suspicions were correct, he hoped she made whoever was truly responsible for her parents' deaths rue the day they had ever even _thought_ about having them murdered.

* * *

"You can only survive in subzero temperatures," Fuyutski said.

Gendo was silent for several long moments upon hearing that. Only years of practice at hiding his emotions allowed him to keep his face impassive as questions swirled through his mind.

"I see," he finally replied, if only because he felt it would be unseemly to remain silent for too long.

"The doctors say they can't even guess at a long term prognosis," Fuyutski said. "Of course, I've already ordered one of the science teams to find a cure and reserved some of the MAGI's system resources for them."

"Cancel those efforts," Gendo ordered curtly.

"What?" Fuyutski asked, taken aback.

"Cancel those efforts," the Commander repeated. "The Scenario should reach completion before they could possibly bear fruit. The resources could be better utilized elsewhere."

"But Ikari…" Fuyutski hesitated for a moment before plowing forward, "what if we never complete the Scenario?"

Gendo was able to limit the grimace that wanted to appear on his face to a mere twitch of his lips. It had occurred to him as well that with his ability to personally manage the important issues now practically nonexistent, the odds of the Scenario working as they had hoped were now significantly diminished. However, that didn't mean he wanted to hear his most trusted underling speculating about how poor their chances for victory were.

"The Scenario was always an all or nothing venture," Gendo said. "If it fails, things will not turn out well for either of us, regardless of whether or not I am suffering from this…affliction, at the time. So we had better do everything we can to make sure it succeeds."

"All right, fine, I'll cancel the project working on a cure for you," Fuyutski said reluctantly. "It hasn't been properly started yet, anyway. But, Ikari, we have to do _something_ about your situation. Right now, that room is the only place in the city where the temperature is low enough to keep you alive!"

"This is an issue," Gendo admitted. "Have one of the technical teams set up the equipment necessary to keep my office at an acceptable temperature for me as soon as possible."

His office more than spacious enough for him to partition off a section to serve as living space, while leaving a large area for working. Also, if he could survive there, then he could continue his holographic meetings with SEELE. While there would be no stopping the old men from learning that something had happened to him, being able to project at least the appearance of normalcy would do a great deal to prevent them from assuming he was out of the game and becoming obnoxiously bold as a result.

"All right," Fuyutski said, seeming disappointed that this was apparently the best they could do for Gendo. "I'll go and give out the orders now."

"One more thing," the Commander said, causing Fuyutski to immediately stop. "Tell Dr. Akagi to contact me as soon as possible. There's something I want built."

* * *

Mayumi was not terribly pleased about having to go to school the next day.

She was still annoyed with Motomu for allowing her to sleep instead of waking her up, but in all fairness, her computer was _still_ grappling with the encryption on the files she'd downloaded, so there wasn't anything for her to do.

Of course, she would like to be there the instant the Batcomputer finally cracked that particular nut, and Motomu had kindly offered to call her out sick. Mayumi had been very tempted to accept, but she had a strict policy against taking a day off after Batgirl had spent the previous night doing something particularly strenuous that her foes knew she'd been involved in. The odds of someone making the connection were remote, but Mayumi hadn't survived being Batgirl for so long by taking chances.

So, she dragged herself into school, where she was currently doing her best not to fall asleep in class.

The teacher's lecture wasn't helping.

_I can't sleep in class,_ she told herself sternly. _I can't. I'm supposed to be the nerdy teacher's pet type. It would be out of character to fall asleep in class…_

The next thing she knew, a gentle hand on her shoulder was shaking her awake. Mayumi sat up with a violent start, only barely resisting the urge to subject the owner of the hand to a jujitsu flip.

"Whoa, hey, it's all right," the Third Child said soothingly, "calm down."

"Oh, Shinji," Mayumi said, regaining her composure as she readjusted her glasses, which had became badly askew. "What time is it?" she asked, even though she had already noted that the classroom was empty aside from herself and the EVA pilot, meaning it was no longer part of the school day.

"It's right after class," he answered. "You're lucky that Sensei didn't notice you were asleep and that the class rep likes you."

"Right," she agreed, deliberately sounding like she was still groggy, even though she actually felt quite refreshed after her nap. "Lucky."

"Are you okay?" Shinji asked, looking worried. "I've never known you to fall asleep in class before."

"I'm fine," she rushed to assure him. "I just didn't sleep well last night."

"Oh, is there something wrong, or…?"

"Sometimes I just don't sleep well, that's all," she assured him, not sure if she found his excessive concern more endearing or annoying. "But…thanks for, you know, worrying about me."

"Uh, no problem," he said awkwardly.

"I should probably get home," she said, standing. "Did I miss anything important in class?"

"Just more of the Impact lecture," Shinji said, shaking his head ruefully. "Hey, um, do you want me to walk you home? You still look pretty beat, so it might not be a good idea for you to go alone." He said in a great rush, his face growing redder with every word.

Mayumi blinked, looking up at him and feeling a bit startled. Not because he'd made a clumsy pass at her, since she had been encouraging his feelings toward her for quite some time now, after all.

No, what left her feeling a little out of sorts was the realization that her relationship with Shinji might not be necessary any longer. She had already successfully snuck into NERV headquarters, even if it hadn't gone as smoothly as she would've hoped, and the assistance Shinji had unknowingly given her in that endeavor was a large reason why she had gotten in and out in one piece. If the information she'd stolen led her to her parents' killer as she hoped, then there would be no need to continue seeing Shinji in any capacity.

She really should start the process of drifting away from him now, so when she finally made the break-up official (or at least in as much as two people who'd never entirely been boyfriend and girlfriend to begin with could "officially" break up), Shinji wouldn't be particularly devastated, or even surprised.

"I'd like that," she found herself saying instead. "Thank you, Shinji."

* * *

Jun Godo was not in a good mood. In fact, he was in a pretty terrible mood.

He had not had to choose between whether to follow his conscience or his orders the previous night, thanks to Batgirl's seemingly impossible disappearing act. However, that didn't mean that things just went back to normal.

He had believed that he had found someone in the dark lady who was truly committed to the ideal of justice, even if she did shun the government's law enforcement agencies and acted as a vigilante. That had made him leery, of course, but as a member of the T3PD, he was only too aware of the often severe limitations that came with being a member of one of those agencies, especially in this city.

So he had worked with her, because her cooperation was making it possible to pursue criminals who had been untouchable before.

Yet just last night she had performed a highly illegal action, sneaking into NERV headquarters, and given how desperate the organization had been to catch her, it was a pretty safe bet that she had stolen something from them or seen something secret.

Now he wasn't sure if he could, in good conscience, continue to work with the caped crusader.

Working with a vigilante was one thing, but working with a criminal was quite another.

So he was now sitting on the roof of his apartment building as the afternoon sun sank toward the horizon, chain smoking in complete disregard of his vow to quit and trying to figure out what to do.

He needed to talk to her, to get her to justify and explain her actions of the previous night and see if he could still cooperate with her after he heard all that from her. That much he'd realized almost immediately.

The problem, of course, was that he only met with Batgirl when _she_ wanted to see him. The dark lady had never given him any means of summoning her when he wanted to meet, and he had no idea how he might get her to appear.

_How do you get the attention of one specific young woman in an entire major city, when you don't know what her real name is?_ He wondered.

It would take something that _everybody_ would see, but if he took out an ad in the newspaper or something, he'd have god only knew how many people responding, and it would also be blindingly obvious to his superiors that he was working with Batgirl.

_What I need is something that everyone can see, but only she can respond to,_ he thought. _Or at least something only she can respond quickly to. But what the hell would that be?_

Tossing a cigarette butt over the side of the roof, he reached into his pocket and fished out a pack, which only had one smoke left in it. With a sigh, he took it out, stuck it in his mouth, and lit it with his battered old Zippo.

He was nearly done with it when he heard a high pitched sort of shriek. Godo started, the noise catching him off guard, then he chuckled, realizing it was a bat that had left its perch to go out in search of breakfast early.

_Speak of the Batgirl,_ he mused, watching the thing as it flew by, a dark shape against the fiery blaze of the late afternoon sky.

Then it flew right in front of the sun, and inspiration struck Godo like a bolt of lighting. All of a sudden, he knew exactly how best to get in touch with Batgirl.

Tossing his last cigarette away, the old cop got up, knowing he had a good deal of work ahead of him.

* * *

"So you're sure you're all right?" Shinji asked as he and Mayumi walked toward Yamagishi Manor.

"Yes, Shinji, I'm fine," the raven-haired girl reassured him for what felt like the hundredth time, keeping herself from showing him the full measure of her impatience with a great force of will. "There's no great, dark secret behind me falling asleep in class today. I just didn't sleep well last night, that's all."

Dimly, some part of her mind was amazed that she could tell such a massive lie with a straight face, even with as much practice as she had.

"All right," Shinji said, sensing her irritation. "Sorry." He added, lowering his gaze contritely.

Mayumi instantly felt guilty. "No, you don't need to apologize," she said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm…touched that you worry about me like that."

The raven haired girl realized with a sinking feeling that this one _wasn't_ a lie.

He smiled at her. "You know, you're not as shy as you were when I first met you," he said. "It's a…good change."

Mayumi broke eye contact with him, as though the mere mention of her diminished shyness made her bashful somehow. "I guess I'm just…more comfortable around you now."

"Well, it's nice," Shinji said rather awkwardly, shrugging.

"Let's…talk about something else," she said, looking eager to get away from the current topic. "I heard that there was some…disturbance at NERV the other day. Is that true?"

He blinked. "How do you know about that?" he blurted out before shutting his mouth with an audible snap, looking ready to kick himself.

Mayumi shrugged. "My company makes parts for the Evangelions, so I get inside information sometimes," she said. "Why? What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Shinji mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Why?" Mayumi frowned. "Did something bad happen? Are you—"

"Please," he interrupted her, his face red. "I'm fine. I wasn't hurt or anything. But I _don't_ want to talk about it."

"All right," the bespectacled girl agreed, rather surprised.

She had hoped that she could learn whether she'd hurt the Commander during her escape, but continuing to press Shinji clearly wasn't going to do anything but annoy him.

The rest of the trip was made in amicable silence, and in only a few more minutes they arrived at Mayumi's mansion. After a quick good-bye, the two parted ways, with the heiress heading inside and the pilot setting off for his own home.

"Good afternoon, Mayumi-san," Motomu greeted her respectfully as she crossed the threshold. "Was that young Mr. Ikari with you? You should have invited him inside. I'd have been more than happy to make him some tea."

Mayumi simply gave him a glare, which was even more intense than usual, largely because of her anxiety about her growing, and genuine, feelings for the pilot of Evangelion Unit One.

She knew she should feel at least a little guilty when the butler actually seemed to flinch, but the only thing she experienced was satisfaction.

"Has the Batcomputer finished decrypting the files yet?" she asked, not giving him a chance to rebound.

"Not as of yet, Mayumi-san," he answered.

"Damn," she scowled, her impatience growing. "Ikari must've had the MAGI create the encryption cipher for his private PC. That's the only possible reason for why it could possibly be taking so long." She mused aloud.

"Is this going to be an issue, Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked.

"I'm not going to have to infiltrate NERV again or kidnap Commander Ikari to get a password, if that's what you're afraid of," she said. "It just means it'll take longer than I'd hoped to access that information. The Batcomputer will figure it out eventually."

"Very good, Mayumi-san," Motomu said. "In the meantime, there is a situation that I believe you will want to be made aware of."

The raven-haired girl frowned. "What situation?" she asked.

"You're in the papers…after a fashion," the butler said somberly.

"Show me," Mayumi ordered him.

Nodding, Motomu led her down into the Batcave. The computer was still running its decryption program in the background, but the butler had brought up a news article from the internet.

Her eyes widened when she saw it. It was about a recent murder, and she recognized the picture of the victim.

It was the boy she had saved on her first night in Tokyo-3. Scanning, the article, she saw that, according to the medical examiner who'd performed the autopsy, the cause of death was strangulation, and, judging from the marks on his neck, it had been done by a man of incredible size and strength. The mention of the dark lady came from a throwaway line about how the victim claimed to have seen her once.

She frowned up at the computer screen, while Motomu stood silently behind her, knowing better than to interrupt her thoughts at the moment.

_It could be a coincidence_, she thought. The boy had clearly lived in the bad part of the city, and people died in the bad part of the city all the time.

Still, she didn't survive being Batgirl for so long with a healthy dose of paranoid. Dismissing the news article, Mayumi called up a search program and started looking for mentions of unexplained murders in the Tokyo-3 area that had apparently been perpetrated by a very large assailant.

It didn't take her long to find the prostitute she had saved on the very same night as the boy among the newly dead.

"Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked.

"Someone's been killing the people I've helped in Tokyo-3," she muttered to herself. Then a tiny gasp escaped her. "Start up the Batcycle!" she ordered him, getting to her feet and breaking into a run.

"What? Why?" he asked, confused.

"No time to explain! Just do it!" she barked as she entered her small changing room, starting the process of undressing before she'd even shut the door.

Though bewildered, the butler did as he was told. A second later, Mayumi burst forth from her changing room, clad in the Batgirl costume from the neck down. Sprinting at full speed, she nearly shoved Motomu out of the way as she jumped onto her bike and pulled her cowl over her head at the same time. Gunning the accelerator, she sped off, leaving a large cloud of smoke in her wake.

Coughing on the exhaust, Motomu stared at the bike's taillight as Batgirl moved down the tunnel that led out of the Batcave. He had never seen her in _that_ much of a rush before.

"Now what was that all about?" he wondered aloud.

* * *

Bane had considered not completing his research on Batgirl. He had been so unimpressed by what he'd learned from his initial "interviews" with people who had seen her that it had seemed unnecessary.

In the end, though, he had decided that it would simply be unprofessional to neglect that part of his job. He hadn't become known as the deadliest assassin in the world by being lazy, after all, and Gendo Ikari had paid full price for this job. Therefore, he deserved Bane's full effort.

Which meant that he had to go and "interrogate" the one remaining person he knew of who had encountered Batgirl.

His quest to do just that had brought him to the Suzuhara home as the sun set and twilight gathered on Tokyo-3.

Bane had been watching the property from the roof of a building across the street, knowing that a man as massive as himself tended to attract undue attention even in the most crowded of areas. He had brought a pair of binoculars with him to better watch the street, but they proved unnecessary; the moment he saw the young Mariko Suzuhara walking down the sidewalk in the company of her brother, he knew he had spotted his target. With her robotic legs, she stuck out like a sore thumb to the seasoned assassin. Most people wouldn't have noticed the subtle difference in her movements, but Bane detected them immediately.

Wasting no time, the assassin descended from his perch, walking up to the Suzuhara children just as they were nearing their home. The boy and girl immediately grew skittish as soon as they caught sight of the huge man in the trench coat and hat approaching them. The older brother pointedly put himself between his sister and the stranger.

"Hello there," Bane greeted them pleasantly. "I understand that the two of you both met the Batgirl at one time."

"W-What of it?" the boy demanded, trying to look brave and failing miserably.

"You will tell me everything you remember from that incident," Bane stated.

"Yeah? And what if we don't feel like it?" the boy challenged with obviously false bravado.

"I am not giving you a choice in this matter," Bane informed them, cracking his knuckles.

He was about to advance on the two children, both of whom looked ready to bolt, and carry them to some out of the way place to interrogate them, when he heard the sound of a motorcycle from behind him. Normally, he would have ignored it; though motorcycles were fairly rare in Tokyo-3, they were far from unheard of. However, the huge man had a finely tuned sense for danger. He turned.

* * *

Batgirl's knuckles were white beneath her black gloves as she gripped the handlebars of her bike, speeding down the street as quickly as her powerful motorcycle could take her.

She told herself that she might be rushing to the Suzuhara home for nothing. Whoever or whatever had killed several of the people she'd helped in the past hadn't struck at them yet, so it was possible that he wasn't going to. The Suzuhara family was firmly middle class, unlike the poorer individuals who had been targeted so far. The perpetrator might not want to deal with the kind of police response and media attention that killing them might well invoke.

Nevertheless, she didn't dare slow down as she charged through the city, her instincts screaming at her that Toji and Mariko were in grave danger.

When she finally reached their street, she was immediately glad that she hadn't eased up on the accelerator for a single moment. A massive man in a trench coat was looming menacingly over the two youngest members of the Suzuhara family on the sidewalk outside their house.

_He's enormous,_ she thought, suppressing a tendril of fear as she noted that his shoulders looked as broad as she was tall. _No use for subtlety here._

He turned to look at her as she got closer. With the element of surprise already lost, the dark lady shouted a warning to Toji and his sister.

_"Move!"_ she roared at the top of her lungs.

The brother and sister, who had likely been on the verge of bolting anyway, immediately complied. Some distant part of her mind noted that Mariko had adapted to her advanced prosthetics very well; she moved as quickly and agilely as she would have with her own natural legs.

Their would-be attacker, on the other hand, didn't scurry out of the way, just as Batgirl had hoped. Her hand came down on the Batcycle's auto-drive button, then darted down to her belt, where it grabbed her grappling gun. Picking a target, she fired the gun. The hook shot out, grabbing hold of a thick branch on a nearby tree, and the dark lady pushed the button to retract the cord.

She was pulled off the Batcycle and into the air just seconds before her motorcycle collided with the massive man.

Except that it didn't actually collide with him at all. Instead, the man sidestepped the speeding bike at the last second. Yet rather than simply let it keep going until it hit something, he managed to reach down and grab hold of the vehicle as it sped by him with both hands, stopping it cold. The tires screeched as they ground against the sidewalk, foul smelling smoke rising up from the points of contact, yet the man held the Batcycle perfectly still.

Glad that her mask completely hid her amazement, Batgirl swung as far away from the man as she could before abandoning her grapple gun and then gracefully landing on the street.

"Run!" she shouted, turning to the Suzuhara children, who had stopped to watch the whole scene unfolding with wide eyes. "Get out of here as fast as you can! Go!"

Brother and sister hesitated for a moment then complied, turning tail and running without a word.

Now no longer having to worry about them, Batgirl turned to look at the massive man nearby. He had managed to shut off her bike's motor and was now standing next to it, looking at her with the gaze of a predator.

"Batgirl," he greeted her, a thick Latin American accent coloring his words, "I did not expect to run into you quite so soon."

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Why have you been killing people that I've helped?"

"My name is Bane, and I have been pursuing those people in order to learn more about you," he answered her. "I intend to kill you, Batgirl."

"You're not the first one to try," she hissed, her blood boiling.

This Bane was even worse than Kyodai had been, she thought. The Ninja had had no regard for human life, either, but at least he hadn't gone on a killing spree prior to encountering her.

"No," Bane agreed nonchalantly, "but I am very different from those that have tried before."

He shed his coat and hat then, and the dark lady's eyes widened at what he revealed. The man's sleeveless black shirt showed off an upper body that was even more massive and muscular than Batgirl had expected, and his entire head was completely concealed by a black and white mask that was similar to something a Mexican wrestler might have worn. There was something infinitely more disturbing about it on him, however.

Wordlessly, Bane pressed a button on some gadget strapped to his wrist, and a small device attached to the back of his belt came to life with a loud whir. Dark gold fluid flowed from the machine through a clear plastic tube, which went up to the back of the mask.

As Batgirl watched, the man's already huge muscles abruptly expanded, easily doubling in size as veins bulged up beneath the surface of his skin. The transformation should've been utterly impossible, but the dark lady had seen it with her own eyes.

"Now, Batgirl, I will kill you," he growled.

With no visible effort, Bane lifted her motorcycle up into the air, holding it high over his head. Grunting slightly, he hurled the Batcycle straight at its owner.

The caped crusader's mind was reeling from the huge man's impossible display, but her body reacted on its own. She quickly rolled out of the way, loosening several batarangs as she went. Her aim was as true as ever, and one of the weapons embedded itself right into the motorcycle's fuel tank, one moment before it exploded. A fire ball blossomed into existence, the explosion creating a shockwave which threw the dark lady back several feet.

Bane didn't even stagger back a step, she noted.

The next thing she knew, the huge man was right next to her, having moved with _incredible_ speed for someone of his size. Her taser was suddenly in her grip, like a playing card materializing in the grip of a particularly skilled stage magician, and she wasted no time in pressing the business end of the weapon to his abdomen while stabbing the ON button.

Bane growled with displeasure, but he didn't collapse to the ground, writhing in pain as she had hoped.

Instead, he almost absentmindedly knocked the weapon from her grasp with a quick smack that made the dark lady feel like her whole hand had been broken.

Training and experience immediately kicked in for the dark lady, and she lashed out at her attacker with fists and feet, but her blows didn't even seem to annoy her enormous foe. Bane reached down, grabbing hold of her head, and her entire skull fit neatly in the palm of his huge hand.

He was probably intending to take her whole head off with one pull, but one of her costume's more rarely used functions kicked in at that moment. Her cowl released a small spurt of gray-green gas, a defensive mechanism to stop anyone who might try to unmake her.

Bane inhaled it and staggered backwards, releasing her. The gas should've knocked even a man of his size flat in seconds, but the assassin kept his feet, seeming to fight off the effect and steady himself in only a moment or two.

Still, that was long enough for Batgirl to put a significant amount of distance between herself and her would-be killer. He moved to close the gap almost at once, but she was already hurling batarangs at him at high speed.

Bane ignored them, the dark projectiles bouncing off his muscled body like they were no more dangerous than ping pong balls.

"Toys," he smirked, plucking one out of the air with an almost casual movement. "Frightening to a mere criminal who is already scared of the 'fearsome' Batgirl. But not to me."

He finally came within reach of her, lashing out with his massive fists. Batgirl barely managed to dodge the lightning quick strike, hurling a small pellet to the ground as she lunged out of the way.

The pellet burst as it hit the street and started to spew out a thick gray cloud.

"Smoke and mirrors," Bane noted, contempt dripping from every syllable. "Literally."

The dark lady ignored him, knowing that all it would take to reveal her was a good breeze. "Infrared," she breathed, triggering the device in her cowl.

With the world visible to her once again, she rushed over to a parked car sitting on the side of the street. Putting her fist through the driver's side window and shattering it, she quickly climbed inside, prying open the steering column with her gloved hands. Her nimble hands quickly went to work, pulling out the proper wires and crossing them. The car's engine started with a roar, and the dark lady grabbed hold of the steering wheel.

Only to look up and realize that Bane was standing _right_ in front of the car. The dark lady's foot slammed down onto the accelerator, pressing the pedal right down to the floor, and the car lurched forward.

Before it could hit Bane, the massive man leaned over and grabbed the front of the vehicle with both arms, bringing the vehicle to a halt.

_This is impossible!_ The dark lady thought as she turned the steering wheel right and then left, trying to break his grip.

Yet Bane held fast to the car as its rear tires screeched and belched smoke. Then the huge masked man let out a loud grunt, lifting the car off the ground, first one end, then the other. Batgirl's eyes widened behind the black lenses in her cowl.

"_Raaugh!_" the assassin flung the car with a loud cry of effort.

Batgirl, who of course hadn't had any opportunity to buckle up, was roughly thrown about as the vehicle hit the ground several yards away from where it had been. Yet however incredible Bane's feat of strength might have been, the stunt hadn't actually done significant damage to Batgirl or the car she'd commandeered.

Recovering from the jolt of being flung like an oversized toy, Batgirl went to slam on the gas pedal again, but before she could, Bane charged forward, bringing both of his huge fists down on the hood of the vehicle, leaving a deep crater in its front end.

Unsurprisingly, the engine abruptly stopped running once he did that.

Then Bane moved over to the driver's side door, ripping it off like it was made of tin foil. He reached for Batgirl, but the caped crusader was quicker, opening the passenger side door and escaping before he could touch her.

He was about to pursue her further, but the sound of sirens blaring in the distance—and coming closer—made him stop short. Apparently, someone had called the police. Probably one of the Suzuharas, in fact.

"Think you can kill me and still have enough time to escape?" Batgirl asked him.

"I never expected to kill you now," Bane informed her. "Today was just about research, and it has been very informative indeed. When next we meet, Batgirl, you will die."

With that, the masked man ran off. He was so huge and so prominent in his distinctive mask that it seemed impossible for him to simply slip away, and yet Batgirl couldn't imagine the police successfully apprehending him.

With a sigh, the dark lady went and gathered up her grapple gun, knowing that she too needed to be gone before the police arrived.

Minutes later, she was swinging through the air high above most of the buildings in the city. Night had truly fallen by this point, and the dark lady simply intended to return home. While she would never admit it to anyone, even Motomu, her encounter with Bane had left her badly shaken.

However, before she could truly start to make her way toward Yamagishi Manor, she spied something high above her head. A spotlight was shining on a patch of clouds over the city.

For a moment, she nearly dismissed it, thinking it was nothing. Then she saw that something was casting a shadow across the circle of light in the sky. A shadow in the shape of a bat.

Squinting, the dark lady was just able to make out the beam of light that was projecting the bat emblem into the sky. Allowing herself a tiny sigh as she accepted that she wasn't quite done for the evening yet, she changed course, moving to investigate the source of the signal.

* * *

Jun Godo was just starting to wonder if Batgirl hadn't seen the massive signal he'd lit up the night sky with when he heard it. A sound like a massive bird flapping its wings came from behind him, and he knew that the dark lady had arrived.

He turned around the greet the young woman in black. "I was starting to think you might not…" the cop trailed off as he realized there was no one there.

"You can turn that thing off now."

Startled, Godo whirled around, discovering that Batgirl had somehow gotten behind him and was standing nearby the pickup truck that held his commandeered spotlight.

_How does she __**do**__ that?_ He wondered.

"You're going to attract the wrong kind of attention if you leave it on for much longer," the caped crusader added.

With a grunt, Godo wordlessly climbed into the bed of the truck and pulled the switch that turned the powerful light off.

"Cute trick," the dark lady remarked sardonically. "Where did the hardware come from?"

"It's police equipment that I borrowed," Godo said. "Used for when we need to pursue someone at night, or if we've got somebody standing on top of a building threatening to jump. That sort of situation."

Batgirl grunted. "You've obviously gone to a lot of trouble to get my attention," she noted. "So here I am. What do you want?"

The question helped focus Godo, and with some effort he managed to shake off the effect of her rather jarring appearance and compose himself.

"I want to know what you were doing inside NERV headquarters last night," he demanded.

"That doesn't concern you," Batgirl answered coolly.

"Like hell it doesn't," Godo scowled. "I was part of the group that was supposed to arrest you, after you made it back to the surface. If you hadn't managed to disappear from that swarm of bats somehow, it would've been my job to take you down."

"Then it's a good thing that I was able to escape, wasn't it?" Batgirl asked.

"Don't give me the run around," Godo snapped, pointing a finger at her. "I didn't agree to work with you only because your help made it possible to get at criminals who'd always been untouchable in the past, you know."

"How is the case against the Penguin going, by the way?" Batgirl asked pointedly.

"Quite well," Godo admitted with some reluctance. "But that's not the point. A big part of why I decided to work with you was because, in spite of you being a vigilante, I thought that you were a more law abiding citizen than most of the cops I work with everyday. If I'd believed that you'd do anything in your efforts with no regard for the law or who you hurt, then I never would've agreed to help you, and damn any chances at putting away people like Cobblepot."

"Godo—"

"No, I'm not finished yet," he growled, wishing dearly for just one more cigarette. "I'm no fan of NERV, but that doesn't give you the right to just go in there and do…whatever you please," he said, realizing he wasn't quite sure what she had actually done. "If you go around only following the laws that you want to follow, then I don't see how you're better than any dirty cop on the T3PD."

Batgirl was silent for a moment after he concluded his rant. "Now are you finished?" she asked eventually.

"Yeah," Godo said. "You got any reason why I should ask you to never seek me out again?"

"A few," Batgirl said dryly.

"Well, I'd love to hear them," Godo said.

He got the distinct impression that the dark lady actually rolled her eyes at him for this, even though the black lenses in her cowl made it impossible to see her eyes and there was no movement of her head.

"You know what NERV is like, Godo," Batgirl said evenly. "That organization is only accountable to the UN and the relevant subcommittees, which don't care to police it at all. NERV effectively answers to no one, and Commander Ikari acts like he's the King of Tokyo-3. And what's worse is that everyone goes along with it. Tell me, Godo, how many times has a member of NERV's Section Two done something illegal and then walked? How many times has someone who was a thorn in Ikari's side disappeared in this city, only for the murder case to be quietly shuffled to the bottom of the police's list of priorities?"

"Too often," Godo admitted reluctantly.

"The fact of the matter is that NERV is funded and sanctioned by very powerful individuals in the UN, and it _does_ provide a crucial service by killing the Angels," Batgirl said. "But so far as their other actions are concerned, can you really tell me they're any better than the yakuza? Can you really?"

"No," Godo admitted.

"I infiltrated NERV headquarters yesterday because I suspect that Commander Ikari might have ordered his people to commit a very serious crime several years ago," Batgirl said. "I went looking for evidence about that. That's all I was after. Not to hurt anyone, and certainly not to profit personally. All I was looking to do was hold NERV accountable. Haven't you ever wanted to do exactly that?"

"Many times," Godo said. "But still—"

"But what?" Batgirl demanded. "You knew from the start that I wouldn't be playing by all the rules that the police have to. So what's the problem, aside from the fact that you thought you might have to shoot me?"

Godo didn't answer, opting not to tell her about how he'd been considering turning on the other police at the scene to help her escape. How he had, in fact, been agonizing over the decision.

Overall, this meeting wasn't going the way he'd expected it to at all. He hadn't thought for a moment that he would be the one on the defensive here. It made him wonder, not for the first time, just how old Batgirl was under that cowl.

"I need a willing partner in the police force," the dark lady said, seeming to soften just a bit. "If you don't want the job, then I'll just have to find someone else. But you have to know that some very evil criminals may well go free because of the time it takes me to find a replacement. Honest cops can be hard to come by in this city."

"I'm aware," Godo said, then sighed gustily. "Fine, you can count on me. But don't think that I'll always side with you no matter what you do. I will _be_ watching, Batgirl."

"I'd expect nothing less," she said. "Now, I'm guessing you need to get that back to wherever you took it from by morning." She said, gesturing toward the pickup with the spotlight in the back.

"That thing?" Godo said, glancing at the truck. "Nah, nobody will notice…" he trailed off as he turned around and realized Batgirl was nowhere to be found.

He sighed. "I hate it when she does that."

* * *

A half an hour later, Batgirl was returning to her underground lair, having glided and swung her way back to Yamagishi Manor.

"I believe you had a motorcycle when you left, Mayumi-san," Motomu noted dryly as she walked in. Someone who didn't know him could've been forgiven for thinking he was indifferent.

"Yes," the dark lady replied, pulling off her cowl. "I'll be needing to break out my spare, and of course to acquire a new spare."

"I'll make the arrangements," Motomu said. "You do seem to be running through Batcycles lately. What happened to this one? And where did you take off to in such a great hurry?"

"I wanted to check on the Suzuhara family, given the apparent MO of the killer you informed me about," Mayumi answered. "And none too soon. He was there when I arrived. The Batcycle was lost in the resulting skirmish."

"I take it the battle was quite rigorous, then?" Motomu asked.

"Indeed," Mayumi agreed, taking off her utility belt and draping it on a nearby table. "Much as I hate to do anything to slow down the decryption of the files I took from NERV, I'm going to have to run a search on this 'Bane' character and see what I can learn about him."

"Ah, yes, I almost forgot to inform you," Motomu said. "The Batcomputer completed the decryption while you were out."

Her eyes widened. "What? Why didn't you say so?"

Without waiting for an answer, she ran up to her console, not bothering to sit down in her chair as she quickly brought up the computer files she'd taken from NERV and started to read them.

Motomu read over her shoulder as she quickly scanned the screen.

"What is Project: Chained Wings?" the butler asked eventually.

"I don't know," Mayumi said, pursing her lips. "Most of that information seems to have been redacted. All I can tell for sure was that it was some sort of secret R&D project."

"Good heavens, don't tell me you infiltrated NERV headquarters just for _that?_" Motomu asked, appalled.

"Not quite. There's a list of important people who were involved with this project here, too." she said, bringing it up. "My parents are on it."

Motomu inhaled suddenly. It wasn't quite a gasp, but it was close.

"Running a search on these names…" Mayumi muttered to herself, and in seconds the computer had delivered the results. "What a surprise. All dead."

"Oh," the butler said softly.

"Except for one," Mayumi added. "A Mr. Hisao Watanabe. He's currently serving four consecutive life sentences for murder in a small prison facility located on an island twenty kilometers off the western coast of Nippon."

"Breaking into such a facility can hardly be much easier than sneaking into NERV," Motomu pointed out worriedly.

"True," Mayumi conceded, "but it looks like that's exactly what I'm going to have to do."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so Bane enters the fray, but he's going to have to compete with a lot of other plotlines for attention, it seems.

Not much else to say here, so as always thanks to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen:** Against All Odds

The Batcave was perhaps one of the most self-contradictory places ever to exist. There could be little doubt that it was the most self-contradictory place in all of Tokyo-3.

On the one hand, it was home to the most high technology outside of NERV headquarters. From the ORACLE supercomputer, to the various top of the line vehicles, to the array of gadgets to be found there, there was stuff that was at least ten years ahead of its time everywhere.

On the other hand…it was all in a cave.

Neither of the two individuals who regularly frequented the Batcave ever remarked on the irony of utilizing what was probably the oldest form of shelter ever used by mankind to hide all the hi tech toys. Mayumi because she didn't care and Motomu because he was more concerned with trying to make the place just a tad less gloomy.

Mayumi, of course, didn't care about the gloominess of her secret headquarters either, but for once she wished she'd allowed the butler to bring down one of the vases full of flowers he was always trying to sneak into the cave.

If only so she could have something to smash, she was so frustrated.

For the past few hours, Mayumi had been sitting before her computer, doing her best to dig up information both on Bane and the prison facility where the one person who might have answers about her parents' murder was being held.

On both subjects, she had come up with very little information, despite her considerable resources and the networks which she could tap.

Bane was little more than a ghost, at least so far as her sources could tell her. A truly long list of murders and assassinations was attributed to him, though Mayumi assumed that Bane had in reality killed only a fraction of those people. His enormous strength was well known, and it was said that none of his targets had ever escaped him.

In other words, just about everything she discovered about him read like an advertisement for his services. In regards to information she could actually use—his preferred methods of killing people, quirks he might've had, weaknesses he may have possessed—Mayumi could find absolutely nothing.

In fact, INTERPOL wasn't even convinced that the man existed at all, though he was wanted by various national police forces.

So far as the facility, Kangoku Island, went, there was little to be found out there that wasn't on the government website concerning the place. A few huge bribes had gotten her what she could only hope was an actual plan for the facility, but she knew nothing about what sort of technology they had at the prison, the standard procedures that the guards followed there, their schedules, or even how many guards were present. It was looking unlikely that she would ever find out any of that, at least not without going there herself.

_And I thought infiltrating NERV headquarters was difficult,_ she thought grimly, getting up from the chair in front of her computer.

The main gym that she utilized most frequently was up in the parts of Yamagishi Manor which weren't hidden below ground, but Mayumi kept a little training equipment down in the Batcave for various reasons. Pulling on a pair of gloves, she moved over to a heavy punching she had strung up, and then proceeded to lash out at for a solid twenty minutes straight.

_"Hiya!"_ She roared, giving it one final, explosive kick that snapped the chain suspending it above the floor and sent it flying across the cave. It came down to the ground with a loud "whump!" sound and immediately split open, spilling sand everywhere.

"Motomu won't be too happy about that," she muttered to herself, even though she was hardly concerned about the butler's reaction. She did pay him to clean up after her, after all.

Feeling a bit better, she wiped the sweat from her brow with her forearm and went back up to her computer, but when her renewed efforts started to prove as fruitless as before, she quickly decided that it would be best to stop.

With a sigh, she leaned back in her chair, twining her fingers together and holding them in front of her face as she cast her gaze downwards at nothing in particular.

With the challenge of sneaking onto Kangoku Island ahead of her, and Bane out there seeking her demise, there was no question that her activities as Batgirl were becoming more dangerous than ever before. Indeed, the fights against petty criminals and yakuza members that she'd regularly had back in Tokyo-2, which had seemed so terrifying and just plain _big_ when she'd first put on the cape and cowl, were nothing in comparison.

_I don't like my odds,_ she thought, just a touch sardonically. _If I was someone else, and a betting woman, I wouldn't wager on me surviving._

Most people normally wouldn't bet on a teenage girl who was determined to challenge some of the most powerful criminals around her, of course. However, Mayumi was usually fairly optimistic about her chances, even though she didn't show it. Whether it was arrogance or just an accurate assessment of her abilities, she tended to think she would make it home whenever she went out as Batgirl.

Now she wasn't at all sure.

Not long ago she would've been largely indifferent to her diminishing chances of reaching her next birthday. It would've mattered to her, but only because she couldn't continue to search for the truth about the murder of her parents if she was dead.

Now…

Mayumi closed her eyes for a second, and the image of Shinji Ikari immediately came into her mind.

The raven haired girl's eyes popped open, and she cursed softly.

The Third Child was supposed to have been a means to an end for her, nothing more. She had never intended to develop any genuine affection for him. She wasn't supposed to be afraid what her death might do to him.

And he _certainly_ wasn't supposed to make her imagine a life in which she could stop being Batgirl.

"Yet he did," she muttered to herself, almost growling.

She abruptly rose from her chair, suddenly angry at both herself for succumbing to these silly emotions and at Shinji for making her feel them to begin with. It didn't matter that she had a school girl crush on a boy. She would not, could not abandon her hunt for the truth about what had happened to her parents, especially not now that she was so close. Also, the assassin after her was an issue that she could hardly ignore.

It was irrelevant that the idea of her being happy again suddenly didn't seem as impossible as it had for most of her life.

"I have to do all this. I coudn't stop being Batgirl, even if I was sure I wanted to," Mayumi remarked softly to herself as she made her way to the door that led up into the mansion proper. "That's all there is to it."

She hated how sad she sounded as she said that.

* * *

While Mayumi was conducting her fruitless research on the challenges awaiting her, another woman was working in one of the few other underground locations on Earth that had as much high technology as the Batcave.

Ritsuko Akagi was toiling away in the private lab down in Terminal Dogma, where NERV kept secrets that were too delicate or terrible to share with people who ultimately accepted the idea of sending young teenagers to do battle against monsters that could destroy the world if left unchecked. At the moment, she was working on the project that Gendo had assigned to her in the aftermath of his…accident with the coolant NERV used on the Evangelions.

"I hate this kind of super top secret crap," she grumbled to herself as she picked up a power drill.

Everything that happened in NERV was top secret, of course. The freaking janitors who cleaned the toilets and mopped the floors in headquarters had to have a background check before their first day on the job. However, with most of her work, Ritsuko could at least get Maya and the rest of the Technical Division One to help her. When she worked in Terminal Dogma, she worked alone.

_I really need to remember to bring some music down here next time,_ she mused as she continued her work. _Not that I could hear it over all these power tools I have to use…_

For the most part, the only other big project she'd ever worked on down in Terminal Dogma was the Dummy System. That was a very different animal, if only because it was supposed to be _her_ masterwork, much as the MAGI supercomputers had been her mother's magnum opus. She had worked on that with a fervor to rival that displayed by Victor Frankenstein while he had labored to prove he had discovered the secret of life over death.

Without that almost crazed zeal, Ritsuko was realizing just how much it sucked to work alone down in the Terminal Dogma for hours on end.

It also gave her far too much time to think.

_I still can't believe what happened to the Commander,_ she mused.

That he had gone to confront Batgirl himself and lived to regret it didn't surprise her; for a commander who liked to present himself as ruling from on high, Gendo had a queer tendency to get dangerously close to the action.

It was the whole bit about his "normal" core body temperate plummeting and leaving him incapable of surviving in temperate climates that shocked her. The odds of him falling into that tank of coolant must've been incredible, but fortune obviously hadn't been with him that day.

_Just touching his skin would burn him,_ she thought. _Guess that means no more blowing off steam in the bedroom for me._

It had disturbed her that that was one of her first thoughts when she'd heard about Gendo's predicament. What disturbed her more, however, was that it had also been her second, third, and fourth thoughts.

_I guess I just hadn't realized how little there was to our relationship besides sex until that was removed from the equation,_ she mused.

Then a small chuckle escaped her as her lips twisted into a bitter smile. She had always thought she was so much smarter and less hedonistic than her friend Misato, yet the joke was on her. She was the one who'd been in a relationship built upon empty physical gratification for years now.

"I guess I'm not as smart as I like to think I am," she muttered.

Part of her very much wanted to break up with Gendo, now that she'd made this depressing realization about them. However, it seemed remarkably bitchy to leave a man so shortly after misfortune struck him.

_And it's not like I'd have the time to look for a new man,_ she mused. _Not with my work schedule._

"Well, at least the Commander will be able to get out of his air conditioned office eventually," she muttered to herself as she stepped back from her new secret project to take a look at it.

The heavily modified, miniature version of standard Evangelion armor frankly seemed like overkill to Ritsuko, but she supposed if it was _her_ life that was dependant on maintaining a subzero environment, then maybe she'd want an excessive level of protection, too.

All she really knew for sure was that she pitied whoever ticked off the Commander while he wore the thing.

* * *

In stark contrast to many of the power players in Tokyo-3, Shinji Ikari had nothing in particular going on in his life at the moment.

Of course, an Angel could attack the city and put his life in peril, along with the rest of Tokyo-3, at any time, and there were a number of other, rather more mundane issues in his life to think about. Trying to peacefully co-exist with his redheaded flat mate and attempting to figure out where his increasingly ill-defined relationship with Mayumi was going (or not going) immediately sprang to mind.

However, all that had become, if not background noise, then not the type of thing he lost sleep over. Which at the moment was exactly the problem.

_When is this day gonna be over?_ He wondered, gazing anxiously at the clock the way endless numbers of other students throughout history before him had.

Unlike Toji, Shinji took some pride in _not_ falling asleep in class, though he'd be lying if he said that he paid that much attention to the seemingly endless series of lectures about the Second Impact and what the world had been like prior to that cataclysm. The Sensei was in _fine_ form that afternoon, though, and the Third Child could feel his eyelids growing heavy…

The bell rang just before he nodded off, and their teacher looked up, appearing mildly surprised to discover that the school day was over, as he always did.

"All right, class dismissed," he said. "Don't forget about your assigned homework."

The class rep ordered the students to bow to the teacher one final time, and then they were free.

Or at least, Shinji was free. Most of his fellow students had club activities to get to. Of course, being an Evangelion pilot precluded him from joining any of the school's clubs, which meant that on afternoons when he didn't have a sync test or something, he sometimes found himself with nothing to do.

"Shinji!"

Turning, the Third Child saw Mayumi jogging to catch up with him, her long ebony hair streaming out after her.

"Hi, Mayumi," he greeted her as she came to a stop next to him. "No club to get to?"

"Ah, I'm a member of the 'Go Home' club, actually," she confessed somewhat sheepishly, using the popular euphemism for someone who hadn't signed up with any of the clubs.

"Really, I didn't know that," Shinji said, mildly surprised.

He'd never asked Mayumi about her after school activities, but she frequently disappeared right after the last class ended. He supposed he'd just assumed that meant she was a member of a club or three.

"Oh, well, sometimes I have to run off to deal with something that happened…with the company, I mean," she explained.

Shinji shrugged, then offered the timid girl a small smile. "So, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Oh, well, I was just wondering…" Mayumi wrung her hands as her face reddened, "if you would walk me home this afternoon?"

Shinji blinked, shocked by the request. It seemed…vaguely romantic in nature, and a girl he thought was very pretty and nice was directing it at _him_.

He abruptly realized that his surprise had made him hesitate for too long. "Oh, sure!" he said, then cringed.

Not exactly smooth.

Fortunately, Mayumi didn't seem to mind. The raven haired girl gave him a small smile. "Thank you," she said.

With no fanfare, the EVA pilot and the heiress started walking down the sidewalk, heading for Yamagishi Manor. No words were exchanged for the first several minutes of the trek, but that didn't bother Shinji. Given the average decibel level of the apartment he called home, a little quiet was welcome. Silence with Mayumi felt comfortable in a way that silence between himself and the ever enigmatic Rei Ayanami simply did not.

Eventually, however, Mayumi did speak. "Shinji?"

"Yes?"

"Would it be all right if I asked you a…very personal question?" she asked softly.

He considered for a moment, before mentally shrugging and deciding that she probably wouldn't get angry if he declined to answer whatever inquiry she had in mind. "All right," he agreed.

"Well, um, your mother…she passed away, right?" the bespectacled girl asked so quietly that he could barely hear her.

"Yes," Shinji answered, his voice almost as soft. "In an accident. It was years ago. I don't even remember what she looked like."

"I'm sorry," Mayumi winced.

Shinji shook his head. "It was a long time ago," he said. "Is that what you wanted to ask me."

"No," Mayumi said. "What I was wondering…well, what if you found out that your mother's accident wasn't really an accident at all? That someone was to blame?"

He frowned, unable to fathom why she'd be asking him this. "I…I would feel angry, of course," he said. "I'd be furious at whoever took her away."

"You'd want to see justice done?" she pressed.

"Absolutely," he answered.

"What if it meant that you'd have to take some risks yourself to see her killer brought in?" Mayumi asked. "Would you do that?"

"I guess so," he answered, then his frown deepened as a disturbing thought suddenly occurred to him. "Mayumi, you haven't learned something about your parents' murder, have you? Please tell me you're not planning on doing something dangerous."

"I still don't know who killed my parents," the raven haired girl answered. She sidestepped his other question so neatly that Shinji didn't even notice she hadn't answered it. "I just…their wedding anniversary is coming up. Important dates like that always get me thinking about things like this. It's just pointless brooding, I guess. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"Hey, no, it's okay," Shinji quickly reassured her. "I don't mind. Sometimes you just need to talk about…stuff."

This was…not exactly sincere on his part. Over the years he'd spent with his previous guardian, Shinji had grown quite used to not having a sympathetic ear he could pour his troubles into. Even now, after all the time he'd spent in Tokyo-3, he still wasn't sure he'd feel comfortable really confiding in anyone in his new home, though he supposed Mayumi was the person he trusted most at this point.

However, that didn't seem like the right thing to say, so he'd sort of lied a little bit. He'd often heard other people express such a sentiment, anyway, so he assumed there was some truth to it.

"You're a good friend, Shinji," Mayumi said.

They lapsed back into silence, but it wasn't quite as free of tension as it had been before. Shinji couldn't quite shake the feeling that Mayumi planned to do something very dangerous in the name of avenging her parents.

_But that's just crazy, isn't it?_ He thought. Surely, if Mayumi had gotten new information about her parents' murderers, she would hire someone else to go after them for her, if she didn't just give the police the information.

That little bit of logic was difficult for the more pessimistic part of his mind to dispute, but it still didn't make him feel much better.

Finally, they reached the front door of Yamagishi Manor. Shinji was awed all over again by the sheer size and grandeur of the place.

"Um, we're here," Shinji announced unnecessarily, not sure what else to say. The moment had suddenly become awkward.

"Yes, we are," she agreed. "Thank you for walking me, Shinji."

"Oh, no problem," he said, offering her a small smile. "Um, I'll see you tomorrow."

He turned to go but didn't make it a single step before he felt her grab his shoulder with a surprisingly strong grip. Shinji turned, looking at her curiously.

Then, without a word, she drew nearer to him and gently pressed her lips to his. The chaste kiss lasted for several seconds, and then Mayumi pulled back, her face glowing red. Before Shinji could say, or even think, anything at all, she quickly slipped into her massive home and disappeared.

For several moments afterward, the Third Child just stood on the front porch of Yamagishi Manor, a confused whirl of emotions coursing through him, amazement that the extremely shy girl had done something so bold chief among them.

Then he slowly brought his fingertips up to gently touch his lips. There was no denying that the kiss had been extremely nice.

Now if only he could shake the feeling that it had been a kiss goodbye.

* * *

"I shouldn't have done that," Mayumi said to herself as she headed down into the Batcave, feeling extremely agitated as a result of her stupid, impulsive actions.

"Shouldn't have done what, Mayumi-san?" Motomu asked, and she could've cursed when she realized he'd been down in the cave.

"Never mind," she told him sternly, giving the butler a glare that kept him from even thinking about pressing the matter. She felt a bit guilty about that, since Motomu had done nothing to earn her ire at the moment. However, given his propensity for meddling, especially where she and Shinji were concerned, she didn't feel _too_ bad. "Is the Bat ready for take off?"

"Er, yes," Motomu said. "Why? You don't intend on venturing out tonight, do you?" he asked, looking just a tad alarmed.

"Yes, I am," the raven haired girl answered, almost daring him to protest. "I believe I've learned everything significant about Kangoku Island that I'm going to. The man who knows the answer I've been searching for my whole life is there. I want to go before Bane makes a move and complicates things."

Also, she was just tired of worrying about it. At least if she got the incursion into the prison out of the way, then she'd only have the freakishly strong assassin who was out for her blood to fret about.

Unsurprisingly, Motomu didn't look the least bit happy about her intensions for that evening. She had just done something similarly risky by infiltrating NERV headquarters and with far more time spent in preparation. However, he took one look at her face and knew there was no chance of deterring her.

"Very well, Mayumi-san."

Nodding with satisfaction, the raven haired girl ducked into her little changing room, quickly emerging clad from the neck down in her Batgirl suit.

"You will be careful, won't you, Mayumi-san?" Motomu practically pleaded with her.

"Aren't I always?" she quipped. Just being back in her black outfit, and the knowledge that she was finally about to get this over with one way or another, had improved her mood somewhat.

"Mayumi."

"…I promise," she said.

"Thank you," the butler said.

Mayumi nodded, then pulled on her black cowl, approaching the Bat. The sleek black vehicle was one of the most advanced (and expensive) bits of hardware she'd ever acquired, but so far as the caped crusader was concerned, it was worth every last yen, as well as all the trouble she'd had to go through to buy it without attracting any undue attention to herself in the process. Not only was the craft capable of traveling through the air, on the water, and under the water, but it was also a stealth vehicle, which made it about the only thing that could get her to Kangoku Island undetected.

Climbing into the cockpit, Batgirl quickly activated the craft, a small smile forming beneath her cowl as the engine came to life. She rarely used the Bat—it was usually either unnecessary or complete overkill, or both—but she had to admit to enjoying it on the times that she did. Carefully piloting the vehicle out of the cave, she was soon in the open air, noting that the sun was already sinking toward the horizon.

Plunging the Bat into the sea as soon as she reached the open ocean, the dark lady set the craft's autopilot to take her to Kangoku Island. Maintaining a slow enough speed to avoid any and all detection would mean that the trip would take hours, but she had no problem with that. She did her best work in the darkness, after all.

Besides, it would give her a chance to go over what she knew about the facility one more time, she mused as she called up the information up on her screen.

Kangoku Island had been a trial run for a new process of making artificial landmasses, something that a lot of governments were very interested in after Second Impact had made sea levels rise so much. However, though the same process had later been used with great success to restore Okinawa, there had still been a few bugs in it when Kangoku Island had been formed. The result was that sea water rather frequently seeped up through the ground, making Kangoku Island a barren and often miserable place.

Prior to the Second Impact, the tiny island that was over fifty kilometers off the coast of Nippon would've doubtlessly been written off as a failed experiment and promptly abandoned. However, these days land was more dear than ever to the Japanese government, which had ultimately decided to turn the tiny island into a maximum security prison.

Somewhere in that place languished Dr. Ryota Kuse, the only surviving member of the research team behind Project: Chained Wings, which her parents had been working on when they'd died.

_The man with the answers is there,_ Batgirl thought, he heart pounding as a mixture of anticipation and anxiety flowed through her.

It was pitch dark by the time the Bat reached the shores of Kangoku Island; the dark lady never would've been able to see it with her naked eyes. The multipurpose craft rose out of the water, not making enough noise in the process to be heard over the waves crashing against the island. Beneath the pale light of the moon, the Bat would look like just one more rock poking out of the sea.

After checking to make sure that she had all her gear one last time, Batgirl took a breath and dove into the drink with nary a splash. The water was cold but the ocean was calm that night, fortunately, and her smooth, powerful strokes brought her to the shore of the island in only a few minutes.

"Night vision," she ordered as she strode onto the rocky shore, the waves still lapping at the bottoms of her boots.

Immediately, the lenses in her cowl came to life, showing her what her eyes were unable to see. The prison, which covered almost the entire island from the looks of it, was an almost brutally utilitarian structure. High walls soared up toward the skies, while a series of watch towers along its perimeter knifed even higher into the air.

"Infrared," she said.

Again, her vision shifted, showing her the forms of the people around the complex. To her surprise, she discovered that several of the watchtowers appeared to be empty.

_Odd…_

Well, strange though it was, Batgirl wasn't about to complain. Taking out her grappling gun, she aimed for one of the empty towers and fired the hook. Engaging her suit's stealth mode with another voice command, she quickly scurried up the side of tower until she was on top of it, her still damp cape fluttering in the salty breeze.

With her improved vantage point, the dark lady could see that the plans she'd obtained for the prison appeared to be correct. She could see the prison yard, the cell blocks, and the dock which was normally the only way onto or off the island.

Yet from where she was, the security looked even more lacking than it had before. She spotted guards standing at various posts, but none of them were actually moving about. At the moment, at least, absolutely no one was actually patrolling the prison. Not only that, but so far as she could tell, the guards were surprisingly scant in number for such a facility; aside from the docks, the island's all-important link to the outside world, she couldn't see anyplace that had more than one or two guards posted. Batgirl could barely imagine how they could've hoped to put down a full blown prison riot.

_I suppose they just do their best to make sure a riot never happens,_ she mused, noting the large caliber machine guns mounted on the watchtowers, as well as the tops of the walls surrounding the yard. There were also a number of security cameras and heavily armored, electronic doors just about everywhere she looked.

Logically, it made sense that the government could've opted to trade manpower for high tech, and that the few guards who were assigned to Kangoku Island had grown lax over time. Even if a prison rebellion went as well as the inmates could possibly hope, and there was a boat at the tiny port that they could seize at the time, only a handful of them would be able to leave. Also, assuming they even got that far, the JSDF would probably sink their commandeered escape ship, anyway. The prisoners were doubtlessly told all that, and it almost certainly took any hope of leaving early out of them.

Still, the whole thing made her hackles rise. Yet with nothing obviously amiss, there was no true reason for her to hesitate. Still cloaked by her high tech suit, Batgirl carefully made her way across the complex, heading for the place where the prison's main control center was located on the plans she'd gotten. Sure enough, she located it; another tower that was noticeably shorter and more squat than the various watchtowers scattered around the complex. The only entrance appeared to be a heavily armored door, but it was open at the moment, allowing Batgirl to see the solitary, sleepy looking guard sitting before a bank of monitors.

_Just like NERV headquarters all over again, only easier,_ she thought, with a queer combination of pleasure and anxiety.

Back when she had reached the security center in the Geofront, Batgirl had managed to drug the coffee of the man stationed there. This time, she opted for a slightly different method, reaching into her belt and pulling out a small, flat metal disk, about a third of the size of a hockey puck. Pressing the button on the top, she sent it sliding into the room. The guard sitting there never noticed it at all.

A few seconds later, the disk popped open, silently emitting an odorless, colorless gas into the room. As Batgirl watched, the guard yawned hugely, then quickly dozed off, something he'd looked about ready to do anyway. After waiting a few moments for the sleeping gas to dissipate, the dark lady herself entered the control room, easily claiming the security badge clipped to the guard's breast pocket.

_Now to find out where my target is,_ she told herself, moving to the keyboard at the guard's terminal.

Fortunately, if there were any password locks, the guard himself had already gotten past them, and the software utilized by the prison proved itself quite simple to use. It only took her a minute to discover which cell block Kuse resided in.

"Looks like that's my next stop, then," Batgirl whispered to herself.

The caped crusader spent the next hour carefully traversing the interior of the prison, again discovering that the task wasn't nearly as difficult as she'd expected. There were still no patrols, or at least none that she ran into. Of course, there were guards at various checkpoints and gates, but she had little difficulty sneaking past them. Most of those gates were even open, though it was obvious that they could be slammed shut at a moment's notice. Her pilfered key card got her past any doors that actually were locked.

Finally, she reached the cell block where Dr. Kuse lay. It was well past lights out there, and so dark that Batgirl didn't even need to use her suit's stealth function to be invisible. Soft footsteps and her almost entirely black outfit were sufficient to render her a phantom.

Reaching the cell that held her target, Batgirl tried mightily to calm down. She had believed in the past that she was on the verge of solving her parents' murder, only to discover that her goal was more distant than she'd thought. Getting excited prematurely was foolish.

So, forcing herself to maintain her composure, the dark lady opened the door and slipped inside. The cell had only one cot, and the form of a person was sprawled out onto it, swathed in a cheap blanket.

Hoping that the scientist knew the answers she sought, and that prison hadn't reduced him in a condition where he was in no state to tell her, she reached out and gently grabbed his shoulder.

"Doctor Kuse?" she said softly. "Doctor, I need to talk to you."

He didn't respond. Batgirl shook him a bit harder, and the blankets shifted, revealing more of the form beneath them.

Batgirl gasped. It wasn't Ryota Kuse on the cot. In fact, it wasn't a man at all; someone had put a mannequin there to make it look like the cell was occupied.

Before the dark lady could react further, the lights in the block all came on. She would've been blinded if her cowl hadn't been set to respond to such changes in lighting and automatically switched off her night vision.

Then the prison's PA system came to life.

"Ah, Batgirl, I was starting to think you would never get here," an all too familiar voice sounded from all around her.

"_Bane?!_" the dark lady exclaimed, stunned. Even with all the misgivings she'd had, she _never_ would have believed that she was walking into a trap set by the massive assassin.

"Indeed," he chuckled. "When I encountered you in the past, I was not seeking to kill you, and yet still you barely managed to survive. Now I do mean to end you. I don't expect you to see the next sunrise."

Batgirl's mind reeled as she tried to figure out how the world Bane might've engineered this situation. Kangoku Island wasn't a NERV facility, it was controlled by the government. A foreigner such as him just arriving in Japan and turning it into his personal mousetrap should've been utterly impossible.

_Never mind that now!_ She told herself sternly. _Focus on surviving, figure out the "how" later!_

Batgirl rushed out of the cell, but she barely made it ten feet away before the sound of a loud bell ringing echoed through the block, and the door of _every_ cell there abruptly swung open.

"Gentlemen!" Bane addressed the inmates, who were already pouring out of their cells. "I make you a simple offer. Whichever one of you kills the Batgirl gets to leave this island with me when I depart!"

The huge crowd of convicts all turned to face the dark lady, completely surrounding her. Scowling under her cowl, Batgirl quickly got into a defensive stance, expertly hiding the fear she could feel bubbling up inside of her.

She hadn't liked her odds before. Now she outright hated them.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** There's quite a bit of brooding in this one, I realize, but this one's a Bat story and an NGE story at the same time. It's kind of inevitable.

Anyway, it looks like our heroine's in real trouble now. Come back next bat time to see if she can get out of _this_ one.

As always, thanks to my readers and reviewers.

* * *

Omake

**Completely Unnecessary Overkill**

"Hey!"

A young woman screamed as a thug rushed up to her and shoved, then grabbed her purse and took off running. No one responded to her shout, however; it was dark out, and people were sparse on the streets at the late hour. As the petty thief rounded a corner and disappeared from his victim's sight, he felt safe in assuming that he had gotten away with it.

"You should really give that back," a voice that sounded like it belonged to a young girl spoke out of the darkness.

The thug scoffed. "I'd like to see you make me!"

"You asked for it…"

A blinding spotlight suddenly came on, shining down on the thief, who squinted, holding up a hand to shield his eyes as he looked up to see where the light was coming from.

"Holy…!"

The spotlight was mounted on a sleek, hovering black aircraft. An aircraft that was utterly bristling with weapons.

"Tell me, big man, how well can you dance?"

"Huh?"

The gun on the aircraft came to life, spraying bullets at the ground near the petty thief's feet, and the man let out a cry as he jumped around, trying to avoid getting hit. Then he turned and ran. Unsurprisingly, the highly advanced plane had no difficulty keeping up with.

"For crying out loud, I'm just a purse snatcher!" the thug screamed. "Is this a little excessive?"

"Actually it's a _lot_ excessive!" Batgirl cackled from the safety of the Bat's cockpit. "But I just got this baby! And I'm not about to wait for a super villain to show out to take it for a spin!"


End file.
